Building your tech - Build it yourself? Outsource? Hire?

When it comes to building your technology, there are a barrage of options of classes, companies, and candidates you could pursue, but how do you know how to build your technical team (or skillset) in the right way at the right time for your business?

To build your technical team, there are 3 general paths you can pursue:

• Build it Yourself

• Outsource

• Hire Internally

There’s not an easy answer, and each direction comes with pros and cons, but having the information you need will help you make the best decision when it comes time to invest your time and cash.

And once we cover the options, we’ll share the most important part of building your tech team.

Build it yourself

To build your product yourself, this means you’re taking on the tech process to jigsaw a working system together. If you have a technical background, this might mean coding it yourself. If you don’t have a technical background, this may require a bit of learning to discover what tools are at your fingertips to bring your product to life.

How to Build a Tech Team Yourself

For the sake of this conversation, let’s assume you’re not part of a founding team that includes a technical co-founder. Before being able to build something, you’ll want to know the options available to you.

Software Developer Bootcamp

If you want to be a software engineer, then yes, go to a bootcamp. Here you’ll learn the basics of software development, but the only way to become a better software developer is experience. If you go to bootcamp just to build your custom app, there’s a good chance you may not be able to achieve the quality you’d want for your product. If you go to bootcamp to become a software engineer so you can learn how to solve problems using technology, then you’re tee’d up well to learn in the field and then solve your own company’s problem one day.

No-Code Apps

If you don’t want to be a software developer, then it’s getting harder and harder to justify spending the money on a bootcamp. If your end goal is to launch a website, some automations, and test some concepts, this is where no-code tools are coming out in force. “No code” refers to any product that helps automate a certain part of your workflow, without having to use custom code.

There are a ton of no-code tools coming on the market and a ton of people aggregating lists of their favorite no code tools, so a quick google search of “no code tools” will get you farther than any list we create that gets outdated tomorrow.

If we had to point you in one place, Maker Pad has a ton of cool insights, how-to’s and success stories from the no-code space. Check them out and let us know if you find anything you can implement.

Who is BIY right for?

The scrappy entrepreneur who thrives wearing multiple hats and has time to devote to product.

The founding team that includes a technical co-founder.

Pros of BIY

• You’re only paying with your time

• You have intimate understanding of the workflow

Cons of BIY

• Spend time on development, not customer acquisition or other parts of the business

• Your lack of tech knowledge could impede the quality of what you create

Outsource

Outsourcing refers to hiring an independent contractor or an external team to work alongside your team and fulfill your technical work needs.

How to Outsource

The quality of your experience with an outsourced firm is wholly dependent on the team you find. The main two types of outsourcing are:

• Individuals - this entails hiring one or more independent software developers

• Teams - most often called a software development agency (like us) or product studio, this is a team of strategists, product managers, designers, and engineers

Outsourcing Individuals

There are lots of places you can find software developers or engineers. Upwork, Toptal, word of mouth, and engineering meetup groups in your city are a place to start.

If you’re not hiring this person on a full-time contract, they’re going to be juggling other work to compensate. This might be a full-time job, and they’re moonlighting on your project, or they may be managing multiple engineering projects throughout their day. You’ll also want to consider the seniority of your engineer. If they are more junior ($$), you’ll need to provide more supervision and guidance. If they’re more senior ($$$$), you should expect them to strategize with you and act more independently.

Outsourcing Teams

If you’re looking for a full-service technical team that can not only produce your tech but align with your business strategy, an agency might be the way to go. Agencies can provide fractional pieces of multiple job functions (senior tech lead, product manager, UI/UX designer, and software engineers) rather than just hiring one of those disciplines at a time. Look for a team who will embed with your way or working or who will help you establish a product process within your company. The value of an outsourced team lies in their ability to be a technical thought parter who can address your needs holistically, and not just code crunchers.

Who is outsourcing right for?

The funded entrepreneur or team who doesn’t have in-house tech talent, but is not ready to build an in-house technical team. You might have enough funding for a V1, but not benefits for a new employee or you may need to build something usable to validate the market before building a team around your product.

Pros of outsourcing

• Implement a tech team quickly

• Access to greater tech seniority for a lower cost than a full-time salary with benefits

• You’re not responsible for their benefits

Cons of outsourcing

• The quality of the team you hire can greatly impact your development

• Less incentive for your engineer to care about your business outcomes

Hire internally

Hiring internally involves bringing a software developer onto your team.

How to Hire Internally

In order to hire internally, you want to find someone who aligns with your technical needs, but also your company culture.

Focusing on just the technical part is the first mistake people make. Values alignment and culture fit often trump technical skill. Hard technical skills don’t have a strong correspondence with an engineer’s ability to deliver business value. Except at the most fundamental levels, attitude and aptitude (especially ability to learn) are much stronger predictors of the success of a hire. William Huster, ThinkNimble CTO

With a growing tech sector, you’ll need to consider the compensation, perks, benefits, and career opportunities you are able to provide. Tech jobs are notorious for doing a great job at this, so consider how you can be a strong contender.

We shared 4 tips for successful tech hiring with Technical.ly, but we already gave away our first tip above :)

Who is hiring internally right for?

This is for the startup who is ready to build a strong internal team. If you eventually want to sell your company, your value can be based on revenue, customers, product, and your internal team, so it’s a good idea to leverage that in-house. You’ll need to be at a stage where you have your HR systems figure out, so you can support new team members.

Pros of hiring internally

• accrue values-aligned team members

• build company value

Cons of hiring internally

• ongoing cost independent of revenue forecast

The most important part about building a tech team

Tech often gets a mysterious shroud around it. You hear people say things like “I’m a non-technical founder,” but you never hear them say “I’m a non-marketing founder.” But those non-marketing founders work with and rely on marketers every day. It’s the same with your tech team. The reason a founder would have a good relationship with a marketer is because they:

• Align on company vision (the problem you are solving)

• Identify a clear target market (user)

• Communicate the business priorities (what the user needs to accomplish)

Your responsibility to your tech partner (whether that’s a co-founder, yourself, an outsourced engineer, an agency, or an internal hire) is to do nothing less than you’d do for a marketing partner:

• Align on the problem you are solving

• Identify a clear user

• Communicate what the user needs to accomplish

Whether you build it yourself, outsource, or hire internally the most important thing you can do is create clear goals for you and your team, so you know you’re moving in the same direction.

There isn’t a one-option fits all when it comes to building a team, but we’re always happy to have a conversation about your options and what might be best for your business.

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ThinkNimble turns clients into confident tech leaders who understand their customers and build better solutions. If you want to understand how technology can increase your bottom line, let’s chat.