Ecommerce Growth Simplified: How Staff Augmentation Can Fuel Your Success

Over my career, I've had the privilege of being deeply involved in countless staff augmentation projects, a term that evolved from "outstaffing" in recent years. Witnessing the diverse range of successes and challenges made me understand what truly makes this approach thrive in the e-commerce landscape.

Recently I published a few posts in my profile about this approach. At some point (actually today) I realized that they are complimentary to each other and deserve to be combined into one article.

Before starting I would like to mention that similar to any business it's all about the right processes and people on the high level.

So, when do you actually start thinking about adding external talent to your team?

Here are the most common signs You Need a Dedicated E-commerce Team:

• Marketing's overflowing wishlist: Your marketing team is brimming with innovative ideas, but development struggles to keep up. A dedicated team bridges the gap, executing marketing visions while maintaining ongoing tasks.
• Redesign roadblock: You envision a stunning new store design, but juggling it with current work feels overwhelming. A dedicated team can take the reins, freeing your in-house team to focus on core operations.
• Expertise injection needed: You want to leverage PWAs for lightning-fast speed, but your team lacks the expertise. A dedicated team offers specialized knowledge to unlock new capabilities and stay ahead of the curve.
• Big sale prep panic: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or a major sale looms, and you need peak performance optimization. A dedicated team provides the extra horsepower to prepare, optimize, and conquer the sales season.
• Fresh ideas from outside: Sometimes, an external perspective offers valuable insights. A dedicated team acts as a trusted advisor, injecting fresh ideas to improve your store's functionality and user experience.

"Ok, Paul, but there are some challenges and potential risks!" - I often hear about them and I have solutions that will address those:

1. How to know that the vendor is good?
2. How to check the talent level?
3. How to make the processes efficient?
4. How to integrate the talent with the in-house team?

Before diving into a full-fledged partnership, consider a test drive using the Time & Material engagement model. This allows you to assess the team's fit and skills:

Before the Test Drive:

• Seek a certified partner: Look for a partner certified in your chosen platform (Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce) for platform expertise.
• Check client reviews: Look for real customer experiences on platforms like Clutch, Goodfirms, or Design Rush to gauge the vendor's track record.
• Request certifications: While not a guarantee of success, they demonstrate the team's commitment to continuous learning and staying up-to-date.

Test Drive Time!

• Option 1: Test Project (40-120 hours): Deep-dive into the team's processes, code quality, and problem-solving skills through a mini-project.
• Option 2: Test Period (40 hours): Focus solely on communication and collaboration, assessing how they interact with your team, their communication style, and collaboration effectiveness.

Remember:

• Proper onboarding is key: Just like any new car, a dedicated team needs proper onboarding to understand your needs and way of working.
• Set clear communication channels: Establish clear protocols for smooth collaboration throughout the project.

Beyond these fundamentals, remember:

• Cultural Fit: Ensure the provider's culture aligns with yours for seamless integration.
• Skills Assessment: Go beyond resumes. Conduct rigorous technical and cultural fit assessments.
• Clear Expectations: Set measurable goals, KPIs, and communication protocols from the outset.
• Ongoing Evaluation: Regularly monitor performance, provide feedback, and course-correct when needed.

That's my experience with important things, but it's not the end of the story. That's only one P out of two.

There is also important part around the processes in this partnership. Since you've already decided that you will take this approach, you need to set-up some of the processes on your side:

Onboarding process: it's as simple as you were to onboard the remote employee.

Documentation: Obvious things are not obvious. Explain how your company works, how do you do deployments, what code standards do you have, etc. Spend some time on it, but at the end you will win.

Measure the NPS: Another important thing is to hear the feedback from the engineer/team on what works good and what should be improved. We do this with the help of the Customer successes managers that do this for both customers and engineers, however there are other instruments to measure it (e.g. NPS).

This article is more of the open discussion. I shared my vision, but I would also like to hear some other suggestions that might help others to make this processes even better.

Paul O.