If we were asked to describe Timspark with a single phase, we would go for “Core Teams”. Unbreakable Core Teams is the driving idea of Timspark’s disruptive business model and an already battle-proven concept. Timspark’s Chief Delivery Officer Sergey Bondarev elaborates on the idea’s origin and why it brings maximum value for the customer with minimum resources involved. In addition, a short glimpse into the Timpark’s future plans is included!

How it all started: the origin of Core Teams as a disruptive approach to outsourcing

– How did you come up with the idea of Core Teams?

The idea to establish a team-centric delivery model originated when I successfully delivered a set of projects, leveraging teams with visionary technology leaders at the wheel. And then, it dawned on me how cost-efficient and fast we could deliver projects. It seemed feasible to replicate this exceptional experience across projects in different domains; this is how the approach was shaped.
Later I came up with the term “unbreakable core teams”. Cutting to the chase, a Core Team functions like an independent unit, with 2–5 seasoned professionals, a team leader, a BA, developers, and in most cases, DevOps as crucial team players.

Building and fostering effective teams played a crucial role in my career path.

1 — As a young developer, I used to work in several teams and observed how different team cultures can be. In an environment full of respect and support, I grew fast and delivered value to customers and the company. On the contrary, I found my motivation waning in teams lacking a supportive culture and eventually left the company.

2 — Transitioning later into a team lead and project manager, I was curating project teams consisting of smaller, specialized sub-teams. At that point, I realized that reusing existing core teams resulted in consistent quality and accelerated delivery speed.

What is no less important, I recognized that how the team was formed, plays a critical role in determining success or failure. In a cohesive team, any possible disputes or conflicts are mitigated without disruptions to the development process. Satisfaction of the team is visible to the customer, eliminating effort on people management from the customer’s side. Low rotation in the close-knit team makes it even more stable. Ultimately, what matters is the stability of deliverables and value ensured for the customer.

3 — In Pre-Sales and R&D, I assembled cohesive mid-term teams of experts. Striking the delicate balance between the team’s experience and motivation, cost-efficiency, and time constraints was not a walkover. While the speed of the deal is crucial at the pre-sales and sales stages, seasoned specialists are highly-wanted yet more challenging to organize quickly as a coherent squad due to their strong individualities. However, in iterations, I learned to foster teams that produced remarkable results.

4 — Using the knowledge gained, I endeavored to build tech communities. Back then, I gained a deep understanding of how versatile the members’ individuality is and how hard it is to manage their motivation and culture within the community.

5 — Further advancing my expertise, I built and fostered high-performing teams within engineering and process development departments. I gained much experience in how vital it is for optimal business performance to transfer and share culture, motivation, and goals from the higher management to the employees.

Summarizing all the above, I firmly believe it’s all about teams in any sphere. If you build the right team and provide the necessary support on the way, no matter the domain?—?you are bound to succeed.

How Timspark stays on top of the latest software development trends and sets its own

– How can outsourcing help business owners drive growth and navigate challenges?

For business owners, the key objective is to build a profitable business or scale an existing one with cost-efficiency, time-to-market, and quality in mind. Yet, companies face unprecedented challenges in today’s rapidly evolving market landscape, ranging from the disruptive impacts of global events like Covid lockdowns to regional conflicts that threaten stability. The critical goal of business owners is to weather these storms and ensure continued growth and resilience. Like in the animal kingdom, where adaptability and agility are crucial survival traits, businesses must exhibit the same traits and be ready for digital transformation.

In this context, outsourcing companies have emerged as indispensable partners for businesses. With augmented and supplemented in-house delivery, organizations can enhance flexibility, streamline operations, and achieve long-term objectives.

Traditional outsourcing companies often have to rely on rotating employees between projects, providing a single-time or project-long team or independent employees via staff augmentation. In such delivery models, employees lack motivation and accountability toward the customer’s business goals. Customers, in turn, treat such teams as mere executors rather than strategic business partners. However, the status quo is no longer sufficient.

A new outsourcing model must be introduced. The model that recognizes that the development team is pivotal in delivering value to the customer and offers mature, motivated, and still flexible units that can provide cost-efficient results with minimal risks.

At Timspark, we are addressing these challenges by introducing the concept of pre-built Core Teams, filling the gap left by traditional outsourcing models. Unlike conventional approaches, our teams are crafted to offer the ideal blend of expertise, motivation, and flexibility, ensuring optimal performance and alignment with customer goals.

Lastly, we understand that customers are human beings, and their satisfaction is paramount. Our vision extends beyond being a mere outsourcing company. We aim to create an outsourcing platform that will keep all the previous advantages of a well-trusted company and foster genuine partnerships that will provide an exceptional experience both to the customer and the teams.

– What stands behind the Core Teams? What do they look like?

We have elaborated the criteria of how each Core Team within Timspark should qualify. Therefore, Core Teams are:

Unbreakable

Each team of 2-5 full-fledged professionals would go through the established lifecycle within our tuned internal processes and policies.

Industry-specific

A team should understand the industry and business aspects from the ground up and have a portfolio of successful projects in the domain.

High-qualified with a proven expertise

Every team has its development path within our company, its specialization (industrial and technical), years of experience, and dozens of projects under its belt.

Highly motivated

Teams provide fast and consistent delivery and strive to create products that the client and the team can be proud of.

This approach proves effective, as it inspires every engineer to deliver outstanding results and brings maximum value to the customer.

– Is Timspark’s approach close to the TaaS (Team as a Service) model?

TaaS is a relatively new yet popular approach in software development. It is primarily a sales model, framing long-term relationships between the contractor and the customer, with an outsourced squad that functions just like an in-house development team, except that they’re a third-party service provider. We do it already but go beyond.

At Timspark, we want teams to be long-living, mature, and evolving, expanding the teams’ value and independent spirit. In addition, we foster accountability and ownership within the teams, pushing them to the level of semi-independent mini-businesses with their small brand.

Taking a glimpse into the future

– Any Timspark’s milestones and plans you can share?

We are still at the beginning of our journey, yet there are several highlights I am happy to reveal.

One significant milestone is establishing a partnership with a prominent outsourcing company that can support our resource needs.

Moreover, we have assembled a high-performing management team leading our Delivery, Marketing, and Sales functions (including myself as Chief Delivery Officer). We work as a single mechanism, United by shared values and goals, driving our organization toward success.

And most importantly, we have brought together and integrated outstanding teams in multiple tech verticals and business domains, ready to deliver exceptional results and value for our clients. Right now, we are putting our efforts into nurturing strong leadership within the teams and forging strategic partnerships with customers. Eventually, uniting exceptional talent and effective management can work wonders.