If you grew up playing sports, you likely heard a lot of pep-talk about the importance of teamwork: phrases like “teamwork makes the dream work” or “there’s no ‘I’ in team.” That’s because when you’re working towards something, having a team with a shared common goal is the most efficient way to get it done. And when it comes to working on design, the same concept applies. The best results are delivered when there’s a team of people with a shared vision putting in the work.
When the lockdown hit in 2020, many companies had to reconsider their design strategy. Instead of keeping it in-house, they decided to outsource their design work to freelancers (or gig workers). These are short-term hires who sign on for a single project, often while working with several clients at a time, and don’t have to answer to any hierarchy system. While freelancers might charge less and be more flexible, it’s safe to say that for the most part they operate as individuals instead of a team. Here’s why that may be a challenge for your company:
- You won’t have their undivided attention. No freelancer works with just a single client (if they did, it wouldn’t be freelancing). That means your freelancer is juggling any number of jobs all at once instead of focusing on just your project.
- You have less input and supervision. A freelancer decides how, where, and when to work. Maintaining open communication and real-time updates might be a challenge.
- You’re limiting creativity. No matter how talented a freelancer may be, they’re still only one person with one perspective. With a design team, there’s a group of people each with individual ideas contributing to the big picture.
- Finding the right freelancer is time consuming. After you choose a freelancer platform for your job posting, you will have to sort through hundreds of applications and portfolios to find someone you trust with the project.
- Freelancing is more like several jobs rolled into one. Freelancers can’t put all their creative attention into your project because their job isn’t just to work on projects. They also have to be their own accountant, account manager, client scout, PR agent, etc. It’s a balancing act of several roles, all of which take attention away from the work they’re hired to do.
A simpler option for your company is to go with a remote development team. This is a team who already has individual members vetted for, and is structured and dependable. They have the experience, time, and support your company needs.
Advantages of a Remote Development Team
- Cost efficiency. With in-house solutions, there are payroll fees, insurance, taxes, benefits, and everything else that goes along with operating a company. But outsourcing to a remote team is cost beneficial because it means less hassle and paperwork..
- Talent recruitment. Having the option to find remote development teams means finding the best talent the world has to offer. It opens you up to several possibilities to people who are already accustomed to remote work. In a development team, their designers have already been vetted for.
- Happier workers. Studies show that remote development team workers have an overall higher level of satisfaction with their jobs versus office workers. That better sense of well-being means better work, and a higher level of productivity.
It’s the future. Remote development teams are already becoming a rising trend in global firms. For a lot of companies, it’s one more way towards a creative, sustainable, high-performance culture.
If your company needs to outsource design work, a remote development team is the way to go. It’s the best way to ensure that sustainable, quality work is done and held to the same standards as in-house work.
Ready to meet your remote development team? We can help! Get started by contacting us at hello@lapizd.com or (407) 385-0537.