Scale, Scale, Scale: Our biggest mistakes whilst In-Sourcing

The Hunger for Power

For the last decade I was focusing on building up software competence in-house and as many large companies do, they are just hungry. Hungry for people. Since the equation is simple: People = Power.

In one of my roles, the decision has been taken to in-source a large portfolio which was currently handled by external suppliers.

Since time is money, a lot of ideas were dropped how we can hire as many people as possible in a short period of time.

We were playing with crazy ideas, hiring 100 and letting the 80 go who dont perform etc. only to give you an idea about the scale. Despite the pressure, we opted for a step by step approach and it turned out pretty well for us.

A major thing we learned during this large scale in-housing:

Never Hire for the Sake of Hiring

Overscaling is a no. Don’t go too fast - since the teams can’t cope with bringing people up to speed (We know that you as a manager usually dont really get affected by that). Basically you make your team constantly start all over again. As a golden rule of thumb my suggestion is to not grow more than 10% per month, gradually decreasing (yes, you read that correctly)

Quality over Quantity (always): It is too easy to hire sub-par people just to hit the numbers for management. It will backfire massively - not only do you have to deal with up/re-skilling of people, your teams will need to deal with those ‘millstones on the neck’ first, creating frustration in an already pressured environment.

Raise the Bar: Are you ‘G.O.A.T.’ enough to be part of the team? Imagine a company that literally hires each and everyone that can count to 3. Well, you can answer that by yourself - you will only attract those who want to enjoy a free ride. The harder it is to get in (and stay in) the more talent you will attract in the long run.

If you want to know more about in-sourcing or out-sourcing software competence to your organization, don’t hesitate to contact me

Until next week

Sophie