Here’s the scenario: your company is about to begin developing a product that will change the game. However, your in-house team is already at full capacity and cannot take on more workload. In this context, there are two possible solutions:
Invest time and money in training an internal team to take on this work.
Delegate the project to external talent identified by an expert partner in technology projects.
Decisions like these shape your day-to-day. Each has advantages and challenges that must be carefully analyzed to maximize benefits and, above all, to drive and complete projects with the highest quality standards. Let’s compare both solutions in critical aspects to discover which is the most effective.
Execution Speed
The speed to push new developments is crucial to staying ahead of your competition. Reaching the market first means aspiring to a larger market share, higher profit margins, and earlier brand positioning. When these factors work against you, your leadership is at risk.
According to a McKinsey study, companies that enter the market six months late lose, on average, 33% of their after-tax profits compared to other organizations.
With this in mind, choosing between internal training or delegating to an expert partner becomes much more important depending on how one approach or the other will accelerate or delay the launch. Let’s analyze both approaches in detail.
In-House Training
Training your own talent to take on a new project requires considerable time.
On one hand, there is the knowledge acquisition period employees must go through to familiarize themselves with the theory of their new tasks. On the other, there is the learning curve regarding the new tools and platforms required to develop the product.
All this can stretch over months, slowing down the project’s start and progress. In addition, during the initial deliveries, it is highly likely that the quality will be lower than expected due to the learning curve.
Delegating to an Expert Partner
With a specialized external partner, time-to-market improves significantly. They already have talent accustomed to what you need thanks to a strong track record in similar projects, which accelerates the start and deployment of the work.
Development begins from day one, with no adaptation periods or learning curves delaying it. The talent knows what to do, how, when, and why.
In addition, their exclusive focus and dedicated resources make it possible to meet deadlines without compromising quality, avoiding internal bottlenecks and freeing your in-house team to focus on other strategic priorities.
Knowledge Transfer
This is a fundamental aspect to ensure that investment in a technology project has a lasting and positive impact on the organization and does not get lost in the rush of day-to-day operations.
Knowledge transfer ensures that the know-how acquired during a specific cycle remains useful and accessible for future opportunities, streamlining new developments in similar projects. This mainly includes project closure services aimed at documenting the entire process for future use.
In-House Training
Choosing internal training means retaining the flow of knowledge within the organization, consolidating team skills, and strengthening intellectual property.
This approach promotes continuous learning tailored to the specific needs of your business. The result is an internal team that is much more capable of facing future challenges and always works with the goal of sharing findings within the organization.
In-house training also generates a sense of belonging and commitment that strengthens motivation and long-term talent retention. When your employees receive training and resources that drive them to grow professionally, you actively foster their loyalty.
Delegating to an Expert Partner
Contrary to what many believe, delegating a complete project to an external partner does not mean losing knowledge transfer. On the contrary, it provides access to practices, methodologies, and experience that enrich internal teams. Strategic allies implement formal strategies to share information with you, including:
- Workshops.
- Joint training sessions.
- Generation of technical documentation and standardized processes.
Outsourcing a process with a trusted partner facilitates co-learning and ongoing collaboration, avoiding exclusive dependency on the external provider. The key is choosing partners that work with transparency and, most importantly, foster cultural integration and alignment with your goals.
Management Capacity
Managing a technology project includes planning, supervision, quality control, and effective communication among all stakeholders: talent, investors, executives, managers, and the rest of the actors involved in your work scheme.
A higher level of management allows you to stay attentive to all the details influencing development cycles and the quality of the final product. It also provides the best situation to apply corrective actions that ensure development alignment with the plan.
In-House Training
When you train in-house talent to take charge of a new project, you have direct control over the entire environment and work cycle, as well as the elements that will be used. You directly determine aspects such as:
- Order of priorities.
- Review dates.
- Methodologies.
- Work tools.
Of course, this is a clear advantage. You can quickly adapt the strategy and work scheme to commercial objectives and set review dates at the beginning of the development cycle to monitor progress. All this ensures that the final result meets the established technical and commercial expectations.
However, in this scenario, internal leaders like you tend to receive a lot of pressure and stress for being the main responsible for the project without having any external relief. This results in difficulties maintaining project pace, managing risks, and ensuring consistent quality.
Delegating to an Expert Partner
It is clear that outsourcing a project involves giving up some control. However, when you choose a strategic partner with experience managing technology projects, the advantages far outweigh the challenges.
Your partner is a reliable source for expert teams in agile methodologies such as Agile, Kanban, XP, and others that ensure successful project delivery and compliance with the deadlines you establish. These frameworks foster team collaboration, task tracking, and continuous product review to identify deviations and determine corrective measures promptly.
You will also have structured communication systems and regular reports, which make the external team’s progress visible and give you an updated view of what is happening in the project at all times. Together, this reduces the risk of delays and unexpected problems, bringing a professional and disciplined approach.
Cultural Alignment
Often underestimated, cultural fit is a decisive factor in the success or failure of all types of projects. A team that does not share values, philosophy, or communication styles is disconnected and unable to achieve the synergy needed to move forward with any initiative.
Psicomart shares the following data: organizations with strong cultural alignment have 20% higher profits, and employees with 30% higher performance than average.
The cultural integration of the talent involved in development improves success opportunities. It accelerates problem-solving, standardizes professional perspectives, and strengthens team cohesion. All this leads to a more agile work cycle focused on short-, medium-, and long-term goals.
In-House Training
From the beginning, your own team shares your values, vision, and work culture, which improves and speeds up communication, collaboration, and alignment with business goals. There is no need to spend time communicating organizational philosophy because the talent embraces it from day one.
These three factors lead to a cohesive, motivated work environment committed to product quality, internal customer satisfaction, and the organization’s vision as a whole.
Delegating to an Expert Partner
Nowadays, most staffing companies are equipped to assimilate and replicate the client company’s values, philosophy, and culture. A partner dedicated to ensuring the highest level of cultural integration inspires trust, communicates effectively, and fully understands your requirements.
There are cultural integration mechanisms that help guarantee the success of the alliance and compliance with the client company’s standards and styles. Three of them are:
- Follow-up meetings.
- Joint training sessions.
- Satisfaction surveys.
These are necessary instances to monitor alignment between the organization and the talent, identify improvement opportunities, and design strategies to capitalize on them.
Which Is the Best Alternative?
For talent retention and knowledge transfer purposes, training in-house talent for new projects is an interesting option. However, it is a slower path that does not guarantee going to market with a product of the highest quality.
The most effective alternative is to delegate your project to an expert partner in Staff Augmentation solutions. You will have a successful product in record time with the support of top-level specialized talent, adjusted to your technical requirements and aligned with your time zone to work with you in real time. In short, specialized professionals at your fingertips in just a few clicks.
