Scaling quickly and delivering your products and services at speed are goals that everyone aims for. That's not in dispute. What is perhaps in contention is the best way to obtain and retain top talent, and the different operating models to use. Outsourcing on a project-by-project basis can help you hire quickly in destinations renowned for having a large pool of skilled engineers — but are those engineers aligned to your business? Are they adding value on a long-term perspective in the same way as, for example, the team extension model found in offshoring?
Offshoring does indeed present a slightly different proposition on paper, with the team extension model augmenting your existing one at home with world-class developers from a talent-rich location. Not only does this help you leverage global engineering skill pools to scale quickly, but it offers cost arbitrage both in salary and also in premises costs. Typical locations for western European and North American businesses include India, Ukraine, and the Philippines. But how can you make the team extension model work?
Find the right location
Deciding where to go is one of several choices you'll need to make if you want to ensure the team extension model works for your business. For example, India has a very high level of English speakers and sits top of the list of the places to build your new team when looking at language, level of talent and skills, and the optimal infrastructure. For businesses in western Europe, nearshoring to Ukraine or other central and eastern European locations can allow for a smaller time difference if that's a crucial parameter.
Choose the right partner
Getting the right offshore partner is key to the successful implementation of the team extension model. Do they have a history of building augmented teams offshore? What's their recruitment and hiring approach? What measures do they take to ensure cultural fit, to help enable seamless collaboration between your onsite and offshore engineers? These are the kind of questions you need to ask to make sure you're choosing the right one.
Ensure continual engagement
In a fierce market like software development, it's crucial that your engineering teams are engaged and invested in the products and services they're building — as well as the organization itself. The right partner will most often deploy a dedicated Chief Happiness or Engagement Officer to make sure the team extension model works optimally while you keep scaling.