“I’ve worked with outsourcing engineering firms that don’t have dedicated members of the the team. People get swapped out all the time. They’re not really a part of your team… The quality control in general is just not there. I’ve been burned in the past, and I know hundreds of other engineers and engineering leaders that have had the same experience. It’s very tricky to give up your idea or code base to another organization that doesn’t fit inside your operational parameter. Swan does. Our project manager is fantastic at coming back with ideas based on designs.”
With the collaborative nature of the technology partnership, both the client and Swan work seamlessly together to produce the best possible application.
One way is balance. Whenever someone comes up with a new idea, the teams work together to examine the what-ifs, what-abouts, or impacts of the changes on the rest of the application.
The client explains why this is so invaluable to him. “That’s been paramount. I have yet to come across another outsource engineering firm that does the same or brings that same kind of mindset.”
Although he is happy to make decisions on his own, the client prefers to have the input of other people. With the many responsibilities he has as the CTO, he appreciates Swan’s team pointing out the issues an idea might bring — and suggesting ways to make the application better.
For someone without his extensive background in technology, having a team unwilling to challenge decisions or point out potential pitfalls could be problematic. “[Working with] Swan very much feels like a partnership in that decision making process…if I disagree, and I want to go with whatever’s in my head, that’s what they’ll do. They’ve always been very calm about saying, “Okay, cool.” It’s a disagreeing-commit kind of mentality, which is something I look for even in my internal teams. “But the proof’s in the pudding, Swan builds good software. They know the tech that they’re talking about. They have justifiable inputs.”
For a busy CTO, the ability to hash out decisions with professional and knowledgeable developers is invaluable. The data points provided by the team enable him to make the right decisions without falling into self-doubt or wasting his valuable time.
With a variety of components in development, the client had some definite ideas on how certain tasks should be completed. Other components he handed off to Swan with the knowledge that they would find the best way to complete the task and do it.
The client wanted to create the application as quickly as possible. Moving at that rapid of a pace, sometimes the reaction between components could be missed. Swan’s team took the time to analyze and come back when they received a list of requirements to point out the problems that would arise if the requirements were followed to the letter.
The client didn’t want a team that would follow the requirements without paying attention and have only a shoulder-shrug to offer when the application had an issue. As the client puts it, “That’s not the way to build software.”
“You have to have an engineering team that’s willing to say, “That’s cool, but if we do it that way…or what about this…or…It’s that customer-mindedness, that product- mindedness that’s really important.”
Each and every person on the team at Swan approached the client at one time or another to point out a potential problem or ask the client how he wanted to resolve a particular issue. These interactions sometimes got lively, but the client wouldn’t change that. He believes that these colorful interactions are what enabled the team to build such a fantastic piece of software.
While many development projects involve major pivots, the client was fortunate that his did not. The project began with four core value propositions the client company wanted to solve.
Focusing on one aspect of the project might mean less focus on another, but the goal of meeting all core four needs never changed. Meeting the needs of enterprise recruiters would necessarily be different than meeting the needs of agency recruiters. Enterprise recruiters would focus more on an employee referral program, while agency recruiters focused more on extending the reach to external networks.
Making these decisions on what additive value stream to focus on during a given time frame was an important aspect.
The client was able to make the decisions best for his company, and Swan was happy to allow the client to guide the development schedule to meet his startup’s needs.
