Partnering with External Design and Engineering Teams

Here’s the scenario: You have money to spend and an exciting product development roadmap, but you need resources to move forward. Your CTO insists on hiring in-house, but we all know what the market is like at the moment. So you wait…if this sounds even vaguely familiar, read on!

Many of us have been burned in the past by hiring external project and development teams, sometimes in far off countries. Often they are in different time zones, and culturally they might have a hard time saying no and then underdeliver, and there are often communication issues if the team isn’t fluent in your language. In the past I worked with developers in the Ukraine and India, with mixed results. Sure, they were far less expensive than a US equivalent, and with no hiring process needed you can’t beat the ramp up time. Unfortunately the time I spent managing the offshore teams far exceeded what I would have spent if I had hired a team that came with a Project Management resource or from developers that I was managing directly that were located in the USA (though it would have been expensive!). This is not to say that there aren’t great developers or teams in those countries, many of whom work effectively independently, and if you have had success with that model then I am happy for you.

For everyone else, I can say immodestly, it’s time to reconsider partnering with Ballast Lane Applications. Here are the top 10 reasons why:

1. We are based in the USA, with a second headquarters in Medellin, Colombia.? Our Latin American team is managed by expats and seasoned professionals.??
2. We are an established company, 8 years old and now have a team of more than 100 exceptional people.
3. We have great, loyal, long term clients, most of whom renew year after year, project after project.
4. Medellin is a center for talent, education, and stability.
5. All of our client-facing team members are fluent in English.?
6. All of our team members are within a 1-3 hour timezone of our US client.
7. We pride ourselves on our core values (Ownership, Teamwork, Honesty and Continuous Learning), and we take care of our employees, with a professional development plan and other benefits.
8. We have all the skill sets (and personality types!) needed to create a high-performance team that can tackle all phases of a project
9. We are proficient in many software stacks, and comfortable with all widely used tools and systems.
10. Our clients hail from different industries, and are different sizes and at different stages in their business lives. We can tailor our relationship with you to match your needs.??

Each of our loyal clients is different in terms of their scope, budgets, timelines, and the relationship they have with us reflects that. Here are some examples:

• We have one client that has embedded a team of BLA resources in with their own team, and they project manage them directly.? The client did not need to hire them and does not manage their Admin side of things, but they have full control over the assignments, the day to day deliverables, and all interactions as they relate to the project.
• We have another client that is a start-up, and we have a single point of contact.? We fill every role for the client: Product Owner, Project Manager, Business Analyst, Frontend, Backend and Mobile Developers, QA, DevOps, Data Analyst, Launch Support.
• For another client, we started out by taking one product and building it for them because their existing dev team didn’t have capacity.? Our team worked alongside theirs, but not together, and it was so successful that the relationship has grown.? BLA is now part of their team, and work together on several projects and products.

So, it might make sense to (re-)consider using an external team with a successful track record of working shoulder to shoulder with your team.??