How to Work Effectively with Your Offshore Development Team: A Detailed Guide

Outsourcing is a tried and tested method for companies to harness global talent and streamline their processes while helping founders focus on their bottom line business goals.

“Do what you do best. Outsource the rest”- Peter Druker, Father of Modern Business Management Thinking

Offshoring was considered a means to curb costs and save time. Now, it helps businesses, especially startups, to stay competitive and forge ahead of their competition.

Building the right team is key to a startups’ success. Most successful startups have the right team onshore and the right team offshore. The founder onshore to get firsthand customer feedback, someone technical to break it down into technical specs for developers, a product guy to ensure what the customer wants and what the developers deliver are the same, and a team of developers that deliver excellent code. Product delivery depends on how well the team works together, whether onshore or offshore.

Is striking the perfect onshore-offshore balance the way to go? You decide.

The Argument for Having an Offshore Development Team

1. More Skills Than On Site

Finding highly skilled software developers is a very difficult task especially when you are in the initial stages of your startup. For one, the talent pool is not large enough to find the required resources. Secondly, it will be really hard to convince the best talents to work in your startup owing to the heavy competition for talented individuals.

These setbacks are rectified when you search for an offshore team. The talent pool from which you can get your dream team will increase exponentially in size. There will be an increase in productivity and you could actually save or manage your time well if you hire them.

At night when your onshore team is resting your dedicated offshore team members will be working. You get work done even while you sleep. Here is a blog for you to go in depth into the question of why should you hire them?

Read: Why Businesses Hire Indian Companies For Software Development?

Source: LinkedIn Search

2. Cost-Effectiveness

As a startup you’ll always have one eye on how much your are spending on resources. Salaries make up a huge chunk of your expenses and its critical for your startup to find the perfect balance between talent and cost-effectiveness when it comes to your team.

That’s where offshoring helps. You’ll have access to some of the best talents in the industry at almost half the cost. You can save not just on salaries but also on benefits and perks if you offshore your development.

The average cost of a developer in Utah would be at least $75 per hour. At the same time, you can have a Sr. developer for 25-35 USD per hour offshore.

All of these theoretical savings mean nothing if the team doesn’t work well together. So, the focus in our experience has to be with getting the team working well together, rather than thinking about whether to have someone offshore, or onshore.

An offshore development team will help you focus on your core business activities by taking responsibility for your technology requirements. They help your in-house team concentrate on the big picture stuff that requires your complete attention like business strategy, goals, growth plan, etc. Also, you have the flexibility of increasing and decreasing the size of your team based on your requirements.

So the bottom line is, if you can get your team working well together, towards the same vision, it doesn’t matter if your team is onshore or offshore. You could save thousands of dollars every month if you get right balance with your team structure.

That’s not all.

For all its advantages, offshoring comes with its new set of challenges. We will be exploring ways to overcome these challenges and learn how to manage an offshore development team.

Let’s dive in and find out how we can manage an offshore team effectively to ensure success.

3. Flexibility

There are more than one way to look at this, let’s go for the obvious reason first: working remotely gives you the opportunity to select the right people from a large audience. If you find a person is not giving you the output you are expecting you can relieve them of their duties and search for another person. Handpicking the best skills of your choice.

The other viewpoint is that your core team can focus on their delegated tasks and your remote team can work on the tasks which complement your core team. With an effective team management strategyyou can create an onshore and offshore team that works like clockwork.

App development and software development companies benefit the most from offshore team management. Their product can be finished very close to the due date and be sent in real time without delay, which will be impossible for a physical product.

4. Communication

“The most crucial elements of offshoring are to enable a team which is prompt in communication and ensure messages are well articulated across.“– Faiz, CEO of NeoITO.

Communication can easily make or break your chances of success. At the office while you take a short break to stretch your legs and go for a stroll inside your office, more often than not you might strike up a conversation with some of your teammates and perhaps give them some pointers.

This is not possible while working with your offshore team. But you can still engage with them through the plethora of communication channels available nowadays. Ever since Covid, everyone is used to working remotely so communication with your remote team won’t be as big a problem as it used to be.

Still there would be a problem of time zone difference, when your offshore team might be starting their work when you are about to hit the bed and there will be instances where they would need your opinion. This is a major concern and will put your team task management to the test.

To solve this problem one thing you could do is overlap your work timings so that you get at least a few hours with your team. Creating self managing teams can also work but it takes a huge amount of  time and skill to create something like that in the initial stages of your startup.

But,

Make sure you engage as often as possible with your offshore team least until you are in complete sync with your team. Show that you are available and that they can approach you with any concerns or doubts. Be open and friendly to your team. Show them you are willing to hear them out and support them. By being a friend to your team they will be there for you in your time of need.

5. Daily Scrum Meetings

Scheduling daily scrum meeting is an excellent way to align your with the team and get updated on your projects progress. Scrum meetings promotes high process visibility by getting your team members to answer the three important questions:

• • • What did you do yesterday?
    • What is planned to be done today?
    • What are the issues have you faced so far?

These meetings also help to improve familiarity with everyone and build trust.

6. Agile Methodology

Agile methodology is a really effective team management process and it is particularly effective in the  case of remote teams. It will help you identify what is working and what is not.

In this method, long term goals are broken down into short term goals and the team will have a clear idea of what to achieve and when to achieve it. It focuses on moving fastly and changing direction and adapting when necessary.

For this to work you need to get everybody on the same page and constantly inform them of their goals through kanban boards, scrum calls or video calls. Meetings are inevitable but unnecessary meetings can be unproductive and time consuming.

You can collaborate this method with your team management system and make your offshore team work with increased productivity.

Read the benefits of agile methodology in software development. Also check out how you can do project planning in agile methodology.

7. Get off on the Right Foot

Before you start assigning tasks and milestones get to know the team first. Find out who all are your players and show a genuine interest in them. Get them excited about your project and the journey you will go on together.

Take the time to help your offshore team understand who you are and what you are trying to achieve. Tell them about the product, its purpose, the functionalities you are looking for, the deadlines you want to meet and most importantly to whom you are selling this too, aka, your target customer.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” –  Henry Ford

8. Get Your Vision Across

When you pass on your vision and values to your offshore team, it will reflect in the development process. The team will invest in your vision and take an active part in the development process.

They will contribute to new ideas, be more effective and creative; helping ensure that the final product will not be just some run-of-the-mill software but one that will closely adhere to your vision and satisfies your business goals.

Read more: How to Manage Remote Teams Effectively

How We Roll?

At NeoITO, we won’t blindly rush into product development. We make sure both us and our clients have all the information needed to achieve clarity on all aspects of the project. We introduce the stakeholders to every member of the team—not just the project managers and team leads.

Putting faces to names goes a long way in establishing a trusting partnership and aligning themselves towards a specific goal.

They Are Your Offshore Team

Want to get the best out of your offshore team? Then start considering them a part of your team. And why not? They are working towards your business goals and helping out with your success, right? So why treat them any different.

1. Keep Morale High

It’s always good for morale if a team knows that they are valued. It instils in them a sense of belonging and in return, you will have their dedication and hard work. Offshore teams often feel alienated since they are not in direct contact with you. So try to get in touch with them as often as you can.

Take the time to listen to them and what they have to say. Communication with your team should not be solely focused on your business objectives, especially if you are aiming to get the best out of your offshore team.

Source: AZ Quotes

2. Motivation is key

It’s the small things that make a huge difference like celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, engaging in casual conversations from time to time can all make a big impression on your offshore team. Make sure to commend them on a job well done if they deliver the product on time and under budget.

Boost their morale by appreciating them on their hard work and how they are contributing hugely to your business. When customers start loving your product, make it a point to share it with the team and include them in your celebrations.

3. Trust Your Offshore Team (They Know What They Are Doing)

Why did you hire a particular offshore team? It’s because they bring a set of skills and expertise in areas where you are lacking or need strengthening. So what happens when you micromanage everything they do ? Your team will feel insecure working for you.

To avoid that you have to learn to trust and respect your offshore team. They are experts in their fields and sometimes know what would best work for your product.

Yes, it is great that you want to be part of the process every step of the way and its commendable. But it should have its limits. You need to allow them to express themselves. It will make them feel valuable and more comfortable in coming up with suggestions and taking decisions.

They are professionals and you should regularly ask them for their input to help improve your product and the overall process. It can encourage them to take initiatives and put in that extra effort. All the money in the world won’t replace the output you’ll receive if you start to place your trust in the right people.

It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do. –Steve Jobs

How We Build Trust?

We believe trust is the foundation of every successful partnership. Even though we have a strong base in Utah and amazing relationships with startup founders in the Silicon Slopes; we went ahead and set up a dedicated office in Salt Lake City, with Utah’s own Joel McKay Smith at the helm.

Our onshore team of project managers and technology consultants help liaison between clients and our offshore team. It solves the issues caused by time zone differences, differences in culture and also renews their trust in us.

Having an onshore team in Utah is helping us get a deeper understanding of the startup culture in the Silicon Slopes and help more startup founders to leverage our technology prowess to transform their ideas into lightning fast products.

Be Straightforward

Yes, it’s a huge advantage to have an offshore team fluent in your language. But that doesn’t always mean they will always understand your regional and pop-culture references. Even metaphors are also a strict no-no.

So try to stay away from those as much as possible. Simplify your language to avoid confusion. Clarity is quality. Provide clear-cut directions to your team and leave no room for assumptions.

Take Advantage of Different Communication Channels

Leverage technology to communicate with your team effectively. Tools like Slack have all the tools to communicate and share information like video conferencing and group messaging. You can use other chat applications like Skype to engage with your team members on a personal level.

One on ones with the team is effective in building a strong sense of belonging within the team. Daily scrum calls and project management tools like Trello and Jira will help you plan, track and stay up-to-date on your projects progress.

Take a look at some of the communication and project management tools below:

• • • Slack
    • Jira
    • Trello
    • Skype
    • Asana
    • Discord

Also take a look at the top 10 reasons why app developers need a project management tool.

Takeaway

Offshore development teams are now a staple behind success stories of some of the best startups and scaleups. It is now becoming a necessity owing to the time we are in now. So getting the best out of them is crucial.

Changing your approach towards your offshore team can have a massive impact on performance and productivity. Bringing a positive vibe can encourage them to give you their 100%. Learning to trust them and their expertise will maximise output and help you gain valuable insights from them.

We, here at NeoITO, are lucky to have worked with some of the coolest startups founders who understand the value of an offshore development company can bring. They trusted our technology expertise to take them forward and help them achieve their goals. We have been part of startups and scaleups whose products have earned more than $20 million in funding and used by millions of people.

Are you on the lookout for an offshore team? We would love to hear you out!

Also Read: Outsourcing Vs. Offshoring: What is Right for Your Business?