Find Your Vendor Before You Need Them
By Soo Somerset, Green Mars CEO
Which comes first: the search for an engineering firm or the need for one? Usually, it’s the need that prompts the search. As a result, there is a mad dash to find a suitable engineering team to start work as soon as possible, and this approach can lead to hasty decisions from limited options.
As an alternative, one could begin the search for the right engineering firm even before the need arises. This may seem counterintuitive, since the basis of an initial conversation with a engineering firm is usually about project requirements.
Green Mars takes a different approach, forming connections and relationships that may be supportive from a distance for months (or sometimes years) before an engagement is appropriate. This was the natural result of working exclusively with startups, where the chaos of budget and deadlines can make for a bumpy roadmap.
Do you already know which engineering firm you would use if a need were to arise? You may want to work with them to develop a simple roadmap for the foreseeable future. Odds are good that they would be happy to support you and having some visibility into your plans, even in the somewhat distant future, can help calibrate expectations and still allow flexibility when change is needed.
If you are goal-oriented, these connections with your engineering vendor partner can act as a touchstone for accountability and clarify your company objectives so you’ll be ready for an engagement. And when you find yourself mired in the chaotic nature of the startup environment, they can provide a beacon to help you stay on course to your overall objectives.
Perhaps the best part of knowing your engineering firm before you hire them is the trust you develop: that when you need to move, you can move quickly and with confidence that you’re in good hands.
If you do not know who you would hire for your next software project, and you feel it likely that you’ll need one in the next six months to a year, I encourage you to ask around and see if you can find a firm that matches your potential needs and get to know more about them. In that case, I hope you will include Green Mars in your list of possibilities for full-stack software engineering. We would love to help you succeed!
Still on the fence about outsourcing? You may be interested in our top 5 reasons to outsource article.
Learn more about Green Mars at our website.
