What to ask when looking for a nearshore development company?
New companies continue to pop up every day in a growingly digital world, and there’s a shortage of talent all across the leading tech hubs. Nowadays, it is more and more common for companies to resort to outsourcing for help in achieving their goals.
One of the common key points when considering nearshore partners is looking for the price. Of course, that is an important aspect, but like everything when you go for long term relationships, what seems cheap at first glance can often end up costly in the long run. You won’t buy the most affordable TV if you know that you’ll end up replacing it one month later… Today nearshore is not seen like that anymore, no longer treated as a bargain bin hunt, and there’s a lot more to it than just pricing.
Communication, transparency, and trust
One of the essential traits that you should look for is being able to have excellent communication with the other side. You must feel confidence and transparency from them. If you’re looking for something that is going to hopefully last for years, it’s essential to acknowledge that you’ll go through some times where everything is perfect and other times where things won’t be working out so well. The tough times are the real test of how they’ll react, and it’s crucial to find a company that won’t run and hide, shirking their responsibility, but instead will tackle the problem head-on and do their best to solve it.
Look for companies that don’t hide their employees behind someone else. Companies that build a team with people that you’ll know by name and can properly connect with. Set aside that they are from another company, you’ll want them to feel part of your business and goals. They will need to feel your wins and your losses as their own. Only that way will they walk hand-in-hand with you on your journey.
Here’s a couple of things you can ask when looking for this:
- What’s the day to day of a team?
- To whom will I be talking to?
- Explain to me a situation where you had a problem with a client, and how did you solve it?
Company culture
You need to have a quick look inside the company and have a good feeling about how everything runs. You’ll want to have the people working with you in the best context possible. Look for companies where people feel happy, challenged, and able to grow inside. You have to understand if their values are similar to the ones from your own company.
There’s an investment on your part when on-boarding someone, and someone leaving (internal or not) there’s always a chunk of experience that goes with it. Of course, some situations are outside of your control, and people do eventually leave, it’s a natural process. But the goal here is to trust that the team you’ll be interacting is unlikely to suffer sweeping changes on a regular basis, that any replacements or changes in individuals will be minor and part of expected behavior patterns.
Possible questions:
- How is the churn in the company?
- How do people grow?
- What are the company’s challenges regarding people right now?
In it for the long haul
When looking for a partner for the next few years, you will want to find someone that thinks ahead when making the decisions. It’s a crucial aspect, as it shows they are not just looking to make a quick buck. It’s easy to find companies that force every situation to make it easy and cheap in the short term and neglect that some decisions come with considerable costs further in time. And these decisions will come back to bite you after they’re long gone.
Possible questions:
- What’s the average time for a project?
- How old is your current longest-running project?
- How is the client churn?
No dependency and true partnership
Find someone that isn’t dependent on your business. I understand that having the upper hand may sound like an exciting prospect, but if you’re looking for someone that will keep in mind your best interests, you don’t want them to feel that by going against some idea, they will be in danger of closing the company.
Possible questions:
- How many people are in your company?
- How many people on average per project?
- How long have you been in business?
Business-driven development
Look for a partner that values excellent technical skills coupled with the understanding of the business. You will always want the people developing the solutions to be mindful and aware of the bigger picture and keep your business goals in mind. It’s easy to send some work to your partner and then get back to them after a month for the job done. That is a way to do it, but not the best. You want a partner that not only wants to develop the solution but also wants to understand the problem. You want a partner that wants to be able to offer the best solution tailored specifically to your business goals.
Possible questions:
- What do you expect from your clients?
- What do developers need to do their work?
Conclusion
This all may seem daunting, but there are things that you can look for when understanding how a partnership might work. There is a lot more to look into, but in the initial phase, it’s essential to have a good feeling about how your companies will work together. They don’t need to be the same as you, but they should strive to follow similar values. After that, it’s just a matter of finding a way to make it work.
Nowadays I’m working in my own company trying to bring some products ( like https://isdown.app ) to life. Besides product development, I love to build and scale engineering teams. If you have any questions, feel free to ping me on Twitter or LinkedIn or just leave a comment.
Also, check out Runtime Revolution. It’s an awesome product development agency with a proven track record helping clients scaling their engineering teams with an offshore team.
