My team got outsourced to India a few years back. They kept me (I'm the director of the team) in the US, and I did keep 1 employee in the UK, but I had to lay-off everyone else. I was pretty bummed, and very cynical that we'd be able to hire good designers out there.
Well everyone I laid-off got very generous severance packages, and they all quickly found higher-paying jobs, so that all worked out.
I was able to hire a really great Lead in Pune, and she was able to help hire other good people out there to fill out the team. They're dependable and very solid workers, and I've extended more and more license for them to work without close oversight from me. I've been really impressed with the talent out there. There's a couple things that we've done that's made this work:
Anyways, outsourced Indian employees often have a bad reputation, but can be really great if you hire well and manage them right.
- Hired a very strong lead to anchor the Pune team. Someone who's very dedicated & hungry, and eager to help others too.
- Learned to let go of the very hands-on management style that I was used to, when working with local employees. Especially with a 12 hour time difference, we found out quickly that we can't wait for them to run questions against me and wait for permission... very simple interactions can be multi-day turn-arounds. So I gave them more license to make decisions and inform me afterward... that's been very enabling for them, and also taken alot of weight off my shoulders.
- We hired a few Product Managers in Pune, and created a geographic focus... we have several products that are run entirely out of that office now, end-to-end. Makes a massive difference.
It’s the handoff that gets painful. I have had success too. But it needs to be the right engagement. The biggest problem I have is if a company wants to micro-manage every decision, outsourcing is really bad idea. If a company can’t decide clear requirements and outcomes, outsourcing is a bad idea,. The more back and forth necessary for a team to succeed, the worst the outcomes. It’s not fair to either party to force some sort of time zone on each other. I work on the west coast of the US. It’s exactly 12 time zones off from India. Building good communications channels can be nearly impossible without stressing everyone involved. Lately I have required a maximum of 4 time zone difference in all engagements and that is working much better. But upper management keeps pushing back that you can get 3 in India instead of 2 in Argentina (for example). Quantity is really secondary to quality to me. But that’s probably another reason I am gone.