How to Make Staff Augmentation Work

On January 25th 2023, we organised an event in New York, where leaders from various tech companies discussed the topic of Creating Blended Teams: How to Make Staff Augmentation Work.

IT Staff Augmentation 

CEOs, CTOs, and VPs of Engineering from different tech companies contributed to the discussion on partnering with outsourcing firms and managing that partnership to ensure success. Upon analysing the discussion, it was clear to us that pretty much everyone agreed on the importance of 3 things to make an outsourcing partnership work: Trust, Culture, and Communication.  

Let’s take a deeper look at the main takeaways regarding each of these principles.

Trust:

1. The client and the provider must work together to create a bi-directional understanding between folks from the client and supplier sides. A good supplier should set clear expectations for the beginning of the collaboration, and be diligent in keeping their word – what they commit to should be what they deliver.
2. ‘Happiness is the difference between expectation and reality’, meaning the provider must continuously look out for client satisfaction, and build trust through honesty.
3. Find a development partner that will treat engineers properly and will invest in their engagement and fair compensation – this helps foster developer retention on their side and stability on your side.

Communication:

1. Good English among supplier engineers is important to ensure smooth collaboration and to avoid misunderstandings.
2. Create a safe environment and facilitate honesty. As long as the teams share a continuous improvement mindset, unvarnished feedback can be a great catalyst for improvement.
3. When you are conducting online meetings with remote team members and outsourced teams, keep the camera on at all times, and establish a rule of no multitasking during meetings. Creating a real bond between team members is important for better collaboration, and this applies to extended team members as well. 
4. Ensuring there is an overlap in terms of the working schedules of supplier and client teams is vital. The overlap doesn’t need to be the full day, but it is important to have at least a few hours per day, where inhouse and outsourced teams can align and work together on things that require both parties.

Culture:

1. Be human, and encourage others to behave properly. It is important that outsourced team members feel treated fairly and with respect as much as an in-house team. The more appreciated an outsourced team feels, the more ownership and accountability they will feel towards making sure the end product is successful.
2. Despite living in an all-remote world, sometimes nothing beats an in-person whiteboarding session to make sure everyone is on the same page.
3. Arranging travel to facilitate in-person meetings between supplier and client engineers is a great way to foster the right culture. When picking a provider or deciding on the location of your extended team, it’d be wise to check for the availability of easy travel options in both directions.
4. The kick-off phase of a collaboration is an ideal moment to host in-person meetings and ensure success from the get-go.

Final remarks

In conclusion, an ideal staff augmentation partner should be trustworthy, cherish transparent and constant communication, and should have a strong company culture that is humane and growth-focused.