Let’s discuss the mental barriers which most entrepreneurs, owners and directors encounter when they hear the word “outsourcing.”
- Lack of trust:
I don’t understand how many people will be involved in the project.
If I pay for particular number of positions involved, how can I be sure that people on those positions will be really involved in the working process and invest their resources in the amount which was agreed to at the very beginning? - How can I be sure that the very same people with whom we have discussed all the details will work on the project? There is a possible situation, that I talked to developers of the Senior level but the Junior level developers started to work.
- How can I be sure that the project team has been really generating something during the first few months?
If I don’t see any visible result and I am not a technical expert, then I might become suspicious. Maybe I am just paying for a window dressing. - And the key concern is probably how to select the right team.
About 30% to 40% of our customers say that they already tried to hire someone else to do their project, but it did not work out. They paid money and did not get the result.
REAL STORY: There is a company that received a government order. The company approached us when they had less than 3 months to the deadline. Moreover, they had already dismissed 3 teams. They said that they don’t trust anyone because they were betrayed already 3 times. As a result, within 2,5 months we accomplished the work that they could not finish within a year.
We would like to give directors some recommendations on how to overcome their most challenging mental barriers.
- How to find the right team? It depends on whether you have a rich experience of failures which taught you many lessons.
- Look for customers’ feedback. If you want to check the company, it is better to ask customers for whom the company is currently doing or already completed a project. It is good to have several recommendations in order to form more complete overview of the company.
- It is better to interview several teams, and listen to the questions they ask. You need to look for particular people, who have an experience relevant to your order, and hire these people for your project, not others.
- You need to answer the following question:
— Do I surely know what I want, and can I clearly formulate a task? If yes, then you need those who perform the work.
— Or, do you expect that contractor would understand your business task and would help you to formulate technological solutions?
This is a real story from one of the partners of ITQuck company on overcoming mental barriers.
When I was an owner and a general director of DaСredit (Yes Credit) Company, I ordered someone to develop the company’s website. However, I still had to be a business analyst, a product owner, an architect, a project manager, a tester and even copywriter, all at the same time. I was an orchestra-man. My main fear was to miss a deadline.
I was able to do quality work either for this project or for the business, but not for both.
Now I see some clients who are about to make the same mistake; they have similar choice. Conclusion is very simple.
Everyone needs to do his job. It’s more trouble than it is worth to do somebody else’s job!