Perspective: Outsourcing Core Competencies

Casper
3 min readApr 1, 2022
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

Quick Hot Take

There are advantages to hiring engineers from various countries. However, there is a risk associated with this approach, particularly in today’s tight labor market. Globalization is here to stay and so are the benefits of getting out of your comfort zone and exploring the extremely deep pools of talent around the world.

However, when you outsource for the sake of outsourcing, you run the danger of losing the brand’s essence. At the end of the day, goods need soul to catch fire in customers’ hearts. Over time, outsourcing or near sourcing becomes more difficult.

At that point, tasks and sprints are reduced to checklists. You might run into issues where individuals make decisions based on what they’re told rather than intuition if you don’t have a strong sense of connection to the goal or the ability to communicate effectively. That’s why it may be tough to outsource a senior position when people haven’t risen

People are performing tactical activities without any strategic thought, so they don’t have to worry about what your product will need in the future or how to deal with long-term issues. Depending on the needs of the organization — you definitely do not want this for key product or operational roles.

The second alternative is to subject them to a thorough critical evaluation period, but not in the manner that a tactical assessment entails if you’re not doing skill-based hiring. You want to know how they would think about your products in the future, and this is much more than a resume evaluation or a technical competence test. You may discover a lot about people’s interests and whether or not they’ll be able to effortlessly execute what you’re asking them to do. But also consider far enough ahead so that they may actually dictate strategy, which means you can be a little more hands-off in assisting them to develop leadership qualities or develop products for you.

The third alternative is to pay a premium for the quantity of talent you actually want to attract. Because you don’t have to go junior or senior, you can be pickier about who you choose. This third option will certainly take longer, but it means that once you’ve got someone committed, you treat them as if they’re a member of your team and…

Casper

Just a guy who enjoys thinking about what could be.