Transcript
Do you have the capability to fulfil the technical ambitions for your business? We have talked to many different businesses with varying degrees of technology capability, and there's a few reasons why they might need help.
So I'm going talk to you about that, how to decide if you need help, how to choose a partner, and then how to get the best out of that relationship. Chances are, if you're watching this, then you think you might need some help. We've actually heard a few horror stories over the years of third party engagements. So I've got some key bits of advice to help you avoid that scenario, and to have a successful relationship with the partner. So the first thing to think about is whether you actually need some help. There's a few areas in which agencies like Ghyston can help a business.
Where could a tech partner help you?
So the first would be in your technology leadership. Perhaps your leaders don't have the right experience to take the business where it needs to go, or perhaps they're bogged down with the day to day, and don't have time for that strategic thinking that's needed. Our second would be capability. So you might have a team, but they don't have the necessary expertise to do the work that was required. And then you might need to bring in some experts in that area. And then the third area is in capacity. So you might not have enough resource to hit your milestones, or you might be using another third party, that's not really delivering what you need and might be looking to change. The technology landscape moves so quickly. It's worth regularly checking in to see if you need help. Otherwise you risk falling behind your competitors.
Is your partner the right fit?
So once you realise that you do need help, you need to think about how to choose a partner. So there's a few things to think about here. The first one would be capability fit. We think it's best to look for an agency that has experienced in the right part of the development process that you need help with. Would you need lots of UX design or Dev ops work? Look for partner with that experience rather than a specific technology, because the partner can help you decide what technologies to use and bring something else to the table. Another important consideration is cultural fit, for you to think about whether an agency's team will gel with your own. And you might want to look for a culture that's similar to your own, or perhaps one that you are aspiring to. So, if for example, you're looking to introduce agile practices into your team. Then you might look for an agency that's really strong on that and can bring that experience in. So finally, it's always good to check the track record of the company. So ideally be able to talk to previous clients and look at case studies from previous work they've done. That way you can look at their capability and cultural fit, using real world example and see how that would map to your own company.
How to make the partnership work?
So once you found a partner that has the right capability, the right cultural fit, and you know that they've had successes in similar projects before you're really setting yourself up for a successful engagement. In order to make sure the engagement goes really smoothly. There's a few things to look out for once you've chosen a partner to work with. So firstly, it sounds obvious, but you need to make sure you're working towards the same goals. Any sensible project will have some business objectives attached to it. So you need to make sure you share those desired outcomes, with your partner agency. And make sure that they're heading towards those, not some other measures. So for example, if your goals are to increase client engagement, you should be measuring the output of your partner agency against that rather than against the number of features that they're developing. It can feel really nice to measure metrics, but it's so crucial to be measuring the output because that's, what's linked to your business success. So another area where relationship can fall down is if a business isn't thinking far enough in the future about what they're gonna use the technology for. So for example, if you're asking an agency to create a proof of concept, but then you try and put that into production, it's gonna break and that's the relationship is gonna fall down there. So you need to be really clear from the start about what your intending to do with the technology so that your agency can help make the right choices as to how they develop it. If you give the agency a clear vision for what they're trying to achieve or what you're trying to achieve over time, they'll make the right decisions to feed into that and it'll make the whole journey much smoother. So none of that's possible without really good communication. So it's important to be explicit in terms of what you want from your agency and also to get and give regular updates on how the project is going and how the relationship is going. And I think a good agency will make it really easy for you to get the information you need, but you need to make sure you're feeding back on that. And that you keep open communication channels so that you can really get the best out of each other.
So if you are a business with big technology ambitions, these are the three things that we think you should consider. So first decide whether you need help. Otherwise you could end up wasting a lot of money and then choose a partner that has the right capability and cultural fit and track record. Otherwise the project's doomed from the start. And then make sure the communication channels are open, that the partners really engaged with your end goals for your business to make sure it's a success. There's no harm getting to know agencies ahead of time so that when you need help, you can make a more informed decision. So if you would like to get to know us a bit better, find out about our capabilities and our culture, then do get in touch with us.
