During hard COVID 19-times and the global crisis has given us, there may be a need for outsourcing some aspects of your project to save money and help your workers to not be overwhelmed. Team creation is a special process where you will discover not only unique personalities but also different nations and cultures. You will learn to manage time zones and interminable distances. You will get used to the interesting English language accents. It is an interesting experience, and this is how you should prepare for it.
DECIDE THE TEAM’S SIZE AND THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF EACH MEMBER.
- What do you outsource? Back-end, front-end, or the entire stack?
- What is your projects’ size? Are you a small, mid-sized, or large business?
- Do you already know the tech stack you want to work with or you need help in choosing?
Having answered it, you will approximately understand how many people you need and where to look for them. However, there is one rule to follow – the bigger the team, the harder it is to control its performance. That’s why the number of members should not exceed 6 people. You need several devs, a designer, a business analyst, a project manager, and a QA manager.
- The project manager monitors the work of each member and helps them. Usually, it is a person with high tech qualification and leader’s qualities;
- Devs write your code and arrange your apps’ logical structure and make it work well with the visual part;
- Designer creates an interface and outlines the navigation;
- Business analytics gathers requirements from the product owner and explains them to the team;
- QA manager tests the end product and detects bugs if there are any.
HIRE TALENTED EMPLOYEES
Hiring is not as hard as finding the right candidates if you want to hire each member separately. You can post the job ad on social media and recruiting websites or surf LinkedIn. To optimize the process and save time looking for outsourcing companies on Clutch and Upwork. They usually have ready-made teams who specialize in different technologies. SapientPro is one of them, by the way. When the client refers to us with the project, we present our teams and have interviews with each member. The team’s size may differ along the process, so if you need one more dev or designer, you won’t need to look for them.
However, if you want to start a team from scratch, follow these rules:
- Create a clear job description with all requirements and offers you have.
- Include peers in the interviewing process. Another opinion may matter, and they may notice something you haven’t.
- Treat candidates with respect. Value their time and make yourself available to all questions that may emerge. It is a good thing. to tell the results of the interview regardless of the outcome. People want to know even if they were not suitable for the job.
COMMUNICATE
To make the process of development smooth and prevent negative situations, you need to talk a lot about each aspect of your project. Your teammates don’t read minds. Even if you are in the USA and your team in Ukraine, there is a need to establish several days a week to talk about the process over. Usually, outsourcing companies are client-oriented and are available at any time suitable for you. However, if you hire people from different time-zones in your team, making time to talk may be a daunting task.
However, there is nothing impossible. You only need to….
1) Establish fixed times of meetings and always stick to them. You will create a habit of speaking about every detail which may prevent misunderstanding.
2) Choose a communication platform that fits your needs. If you require an intensified security, go for Signal and Telegram. If you prioritize stand-ups, smooth files exchange, and integrations with project management tools, go for Slack. If you want to have your messenger combined with a video conference tool, go for Microsoft Teams. Or for anything else you find effective for you and each member of your team.
3) Do not be afraid to ask hard questions, like, “Do you have problems?”, “Why do you think you were unable to meet deadlines?”, “Do you feel uncomfortable with our new requirements?”. Also, make sure people know you won’t be judgemental of the truth. This way you may prevent people from overworking and burning out.
4) Plan your schedule precisely and inform your team about it. Yes, deadlines are unpleasant sometimes. However, if you know the exact time, the task should be completed, it’s easier to organize your work. Also, your team will know when they can refer to you and when you are busy.
5) If you feel highly uncomfortable with the language barrier, include it on your job ad to avoid hiring people who don’t understand what you want from them.
Communication is the key to your project’s success. Sometimes, leaders do not understand it and think about the end-result only. However, if you want to work with the team on a long-term basis, treat them as people and talk about all the issues over.
SUPPORT CULTURE AND PERSONAL CONNECTIONS
It is harder to build corporate culture when going remote because it requires team-building activities, group communication, and the ability to feel present in the team. However, it’s possible because corporate culture is not only about parties and talks. It is the value you bring to your team members.
You may conduct meetings not related to work, visit the country of your team’s residence, or invite them to yours. You can send them some gifts and accept the ones from them. You can create a set of rules that support the human-way of working, like treating sick leaves and personal issues with support, accepting mistakes, and helping to overcome them together, asking how they feel and what they want to change. People are not robots, and we write about them in our article.