Branding and Promotion FOR Technology Professional

BRANDING AND
PROMOTION
FOR
TECHNOLOGY
PROFESSIONAL
v0.1
Abstract
How to promote yourself in a technology world, for technology professionals.
Sensitivity: Internal & Restricted

Table of Contents
Objective............................................................................................................ 2
Target Audience.......................................................................................................................2
Platform ............................................................................................................. 3
Contents ............................................................................................................ 4
Appendix............................................................................................................ 7
Branding and Promotion for Technology Professionals

Page 1

Objective
 Platforms
o Web site promotion
o LinkedIn
o Blog
o Medium
 Contents
 Plan
o How many articles per week
o Choose the right cloud for your web site
Target Audience
 Technology Professional

Page 2

Platform

Page 3

Contents
Artificial General Intelligence
Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis: Three truths about AI
by Nick Heath in Artificial Intelligence on September 24, 2018, 6:51 AM PST
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-deepmind-founder-demis-hassabis-three-truths-about-ai/
One of the creators of the AI research company famed for building the pioneering AlphaGo AI spells out the technology's
impact and future development.
The 2016 victory by a Google-built AI at the notoriously complex game of Go was a bold demonstration of the power of
modern machine learning.
But as significant as that achievement was, DeepMind's co-founder Demis Hassabis expects it will be dwarfed by how AI
will transform society in the years to come.
Hassabis spelt out his vision for the future of AI at the Economist Innovation Summit in London.
AI will save us from ourselves
"I would actually be very pessimistic about the world if something like AI wasn't coming down the
road," he said.
"The reason I say that is that if you look at the challenges that confront society: climate change, sustainability, mass
inequality -- which is getting worse -- diseases, and healthcare, we're not making progress anywhere near fast enough in
any of these areas.
"Either we need an exponential improvement in human behavior -- less selfishness, less short-termism, more
collaboration, more generosity -- or we need an exponential improvement in technology.
-- or we need an exponential improvement in technology.
"If you look at current geopolitics, I don't think we're going to be getting an exponential improvement in human
behavior any time soon.
"That's why we need a quantum leap in technology like AI."

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AI will lead to Nobel Prize-winning scientific breakthroughs
Hassabis' confidence that AI can offset the worst effects of human greed and selfishness stems from how readily the
technology can be applied to solving intractable problems, such as preventing catastrophic climate change.
Google Deepmind co-founder Demis Hassabis.
Image: Google
"I think about AI as a very powerful tool. What I'm most excited about is applying those tools to science and accelerating
breakthroughs," he said.
Today's machine-learning and related AI technologies make it possible to carry out tasks such as image recognition and
to find patterns in vast amounts of data, he said.
But he's particularly enthused about the potential applications of AI's ability to OPTIMIZE TASKS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE
OVERWHELMINGLY COMPLEX, as demonstrated by AlphaGo's success at a game where there are more potential moves
than there are atoms in the universe.
"You can think about huge combinatorial spaces and you're trying to find a path through. Obviously, games like Chess
and Go are like that, there's such a huge number of possibilities you can't brute force the right solution.
"There are lots of areas in science that have a similar structure. I think about areas like material and drug design, where
often what you're doing is painstakingly putting together all sorts of combination of compounds and testing them for
their properties."
The impact of breakthroughs in areas like material design could be profound, according to Hassabis.
"It's hypothesized, for example, there could be a room-temperature superconductor that could revolutionize power and
energy, but we don't know what that compound is currently.
"This is what I'm really excited about and I think what we're going to see over the next 10 years is some really huge,
what I would call NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING BREAKTHROUGHS IN SOME OF THESE AREAS ."
For its part, DeepMind is looking at how machine learning and other AI-related technologies can be applied to areas
such as protein folding and quantum chemistry, he said.
Hassabis also acknowledged that these systems had the potential to be used to cause harm, and raised the possibility
that at some stage, in "five to 10 years time", there could be an argument to keep some research out of the public
domain to prevent it being exploited by "bad actors".
Deep learning is not enough to crack general AI
Creating a machine with a general intelligence similar to our own will require a wider range of technologies than the
deep-learning systems that have powered many recent breakthroughs.
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"Deep learning is an amazing technology and hugely useful in itself, but in my opinion it's definitely not enough to solve
AI, [not] by a long shot," he said.
"I would regard it as one component, maybe with another dozen or half-a-dozen breakthroughs we're going to need like
that. There's a lot more innovation that's required.
"The brain is one integrated system but you've got different parts of the brain responsible for different things.
"You've got the hippocampus for episodic memory, the pre-frontal cortex for your control, and so on.
"YOU CAN THINK ABOUT DEEP LEARNING AS IT CURRENTLY IS TODAY AS THE EQUIVALENT IN THE BRAIN TO OUR SENSORY CORTICES:
OUR VISUAL CORTEX OR AUDITORY CORTEX .
"But, of course, true intelligence is a lot more than just that, you have to recombine it into higher-level thinking and
symbolic reasoning, a lot of the things classical AI tried to deal with in the 80s.
"One way you can think about our research program is [that it's investigating] 'Can we build out from our perception,
using deep-learning systems and learning from first principles? Can we build out all the way to high-level thinking and
symbolic thinking?'.
"In order to do that we need to crack problems like learning concepts, things that humans find effortless but our current
learning systems can't do."
DeepMind is researching how to advance AI in areas that would allow systems to reason at a level that's not possible
today and to transfer knowledge between domains, much the same way a human who's driven a car can apply that
knowledge to drive a van.
"We're trying to make breakthroughs in new types of technologies that we think are going to be required for things like
concept formation, how we bring language understanding into what are currently pre-linguistic systems.
"AlphaGo doesn't understand language but we would like them to build up to this symbolic level of reasoning -- maths,
language, and logic. So that's a big part of our work," he said, adding DeepMind is also working on how to make learning
more efficient, in order to reduce the huge volume of data needed to train deep-learning systems today.

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Offshoring
What is Outsourcing and How to Make It Work for Your Company
https://blog.hubstaff.com/how-to-outsource-grow-your-business/
Michael Hines
Apr 9, 2019 — 11 min read
Outsourcing is leveraged by many types of companies and organizations from small businesses to huge multinational
organizations. It’s easy to see why. Companies of all sizes can benefit from hiring a flexible and agile workforce to take
on some of their projects.
This article will cover all the aspects of outsourcing, including:

 What is outsourcing and how it’s different from off-shoring?
 Why outsource and what are the benefits?
 Outsourcing to increase business profitability
 Outsourcing step-by-step guide
 Common mistakes when outsourcing and how to avoid them
Difference between outsourcing and off-shoring

Many people confuse off-shoring with outsourcing. Outsourcing is not about getting a cheap workforce to do as much
work as possible at a cheap rate in a developing economy.
You can outsource your social media management to Chicago if you want. The point is to get work off your desk or to
get specialist skills that you don’t have yourself or within the team.
Off-shoring, on the other hand, is purely about lowering costs by transferring some business processes abroad to
increase corporate profitability.
Traditionally, only big companies are associated with off-shoring, but with the age of the internet, this is also accessible
to smaller businesses.
For small businesses, the two certainly overlap, but it’s important to distinguish the difference to better identify your
motives for outsourcing and therefore apply the best strategies.
Why outsource?
Often, you’ll find that the growth of your business outpaces the growth of your team. It’s not a horrible problem to
have, but it can leave you with a long to-do list. While it’s tempting to try and tackle everything, this can often stunt your
business’s growth.
growth of your business outpaces the growth of your team
Freelancing and outsourcing expert Matt Keener, author of “Executive in Sweatpants,” talks extensively about when
to and how to outsource work in an interview with StartUp Fashion.
“At a certain point, if you’re working one hundred hours a week, you become counterproductive. So that might be a sign
that you’re ready to do some outsourcing, as well.”
If you’ve reached this point, the first thing you should do is assess your skill set and figure out what new tasks you can
take on.
Remember to keep core competencies in-house

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Remember to keep core competencies in-house! Once you’ve identified what additional work you can handle,
check out this helpful guide on commonly outsourced tasks.
This will make it easier to decide what to keep and what to hand off.
The second reason why many people decide to outsource is to gain specialist skills. At the end of the
day, your business is only as strong as its weakest component.
The second reason why many people decide to outsource is to gain specialist skills. At the end of the day, your business
is only as strong as its weakest component.
If you’re an amazing real estate agent but could use some help on online marketing, don’t be afraid to go and find it!
The above is a good situation where you should be outsourcing. Just remember that the reason why you are
outsourcing in such a scenario is to parachute in an expert who contribute meaningfully to your team. So going for the
cheapest professional makes no sense. You can even consider hiring a local specialist if you wish to support the local
economy.
Outsourcing to increase profitability
Sometimes, outsourcing specific tasks makes a lot of sense from a financial point of view. This can help optimize the
business’s profitability or decrease the number of hours a business owner needs to work.
It’s not uncommon for consultants or freelancers to make as much as $150,000 per year offering their services. In a
scenario where such professional works 250 days a year for 8 hours a day, it comes down to a daily rate of $600, or an
hourly rate of $75.
It is almost certain that some of the work involved in this will not be related to the main service that the business offers.
Rather, administrative tasks such as accounting, bookkeeping, social media updates, Adwords PPC campaigns and so on
can be outsourced for less than $75 per hour.
In fact, some tasks, such as Adwords PPC, can be outsourced for as little as $10 per hour. It’s a no brainer to outsource it
in such situations unless you enjoy the task.
Outsourcing step-by-step
1. Identify the best approach to outsourcing by understanding your motives
Before you begin looking into outsourcing, it’s important to identify your approach. Are you looking to get simple work
off your hands, save on costs or hire a specialist to sort out a specific area of your business?
While you can jump right into searching for talent, it helps if you know what your goals are and how much would make
sense to invest. The last thing you want to do is waste money simply because you had undefined expectations.
Next, decide on an hourly rate or a set project rate. Setting a fixed price for a project ensures you won’t have to worry
about going over budget your first time outsourcing.
If you’re having trouble finding a round number, try breaking down your task into hours and then setting an hourly price
that you can then add up.
While fixed project prices are good, don’t fear hourly rates!
Hourly rates can be great for outsourced teams working in customer service or for an individual who helps with the
books a few hours a week.
Just make sure to monitor the hours worked using trusted time tracking software like Hubstaff to ensure that you’re
only paying freelancers when they’re working.
2. Clarify project specifications and expectations
Once you know why you’re outsourcing and what your approach will be, it’s time to make that into project specifications
and defined expectations.

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One of the first things that you likely already have an insight into from step one is the length of the project. If you’re
looking to outsource bookkeeping, for instance, it’s likely to be a long-term contract.
However, if it’s a one-time project, such as web design, it’s a good idea to have a deadline by when you’d like the project
completed. Maybe you’re attending an event and would like your website up by then. Be sure to clarify these deadlines,
and the importance of them, to any contractors.
In some situations, you’re doing things without any time pressures. However, it’s still a good idea to come up with some
sort of deadline to avoid the project dragging along for a long time.
Once you have your deadlines and timelines set, you will need to clarify the exact expectations from the freelancer or
company you will work with.
Set expectations upfront
If you’re looking for a bookkeeper because you don’t want to do anything whatsoever with bookkeeping, it might mean
going for a person that has done work in your industry before. That way, they don’t bother you asking how to classify
types of expenses.
This also means clarifying and explaining to the bookkeeper that you won’t be inputting any bills or invoices in any sort
of software, but rather forward them to an email address or similar.
You should try to be as specific as you can be to ensure onboarding is seamless and effective.
On the other hand, sometimes you will want to be involved in the project. Say you’re looking for a graphic designer to
design a logo and want to be involved in the process as much as you can.
It would be important then to specify that you will want revisions of the work and there will be back and forth between
you and the contractor.
Many freelancers include a number of revisions in the estimate, so make sure you discuss this upfront.
Lastly, be sure to specify exact deliverables. This is especially important for fixed cost projects. Specify what exactly
you’re paying for and what the contractor will have to deliver to conclude the project.
3. Where to find outsourced talent
Once you know what you need and why you need it and have the details specified, you’re ready for finding the person
or company you will work with.
As you’d expect, there is no shortage of places to find outsourced talent. Below are just a few of the many options
available:
Hubstaff Talent: A completely free talent platform for job seekers and prospective employers. Find hourly talent
from a range of industries as well as full-time remote staff. There are no fees for posting jobs, hiring talent, or sending
payments. Just thousands of talented professionals with clearly stated expertise and rates for you to browse.
Upwork: This platform is another resource to find all manner of freelancers. Here you can hire individuals or teams
and pay on an hourly or per project basis. Vetting candidates is made easy as each applicant’s profile has a star rating
(candidates with a rating of 4.5 or above are highly recommended) along with information on total Upwork hours
worked, and profile history.
Outsourcely: Outsourcely is also another platform to easily find and connect with talent. It’s easy to find, hire, and
work with reliable, vetted remote workers from over 130 countries. This is great for employers who are looking to build
sustainable working relationships and dedicated remote teams. How does Outsourcely work? Search remote workers by
skill or by posting a job and contact candidates immediately using real-time private chat, browser to browser video and
voice calling, video and voice messaging or just regular email. This makes hiring fast and easy.
Fiverr: This is the perfect place for those looking to outsource on a budget. As its name suggests, jobs start at just $5.
You can browse from jobs offered or post your own.
If you want a local service because the person will need to travel to your office for some parts of the work, or because
you want to support the local economy, you can still use any of the internet platforms and just specify the location of
the freelancer. Alternatively, a Google search might do it and there’s always the option of a local online jobs board or big
classifieds sites like Craigslist.
There are many sites and services out there, so take your time and select the one that’s right for you.

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4. Write a good job or project description
The job description is an opportunity to not just describe the job details and set expectations, but also weed out
unqualified candidates by showing high expectations from the start.
Let’s imagine that you need someone to write blog posts, and you decide to look for them on popular freelance websites
or job boards. We will compare two job posts so that you can see the difference between an effective and ineffective job
post.
An ineffective job post
“I am looking for someone to write blog posts for my fitness blog at least twice a week. The blog posts need to be
informative and your English needs to be good.”
An effective job post
“I am looking for a professional writer who will write at least two blog posts weekly for my fitness blog. I will only accept
native English speakers. You must have a portfolio so that I can check out your previous work.
This is going to be a long-term job, so applicants will be tested for competence. The client will expect discipline,
organization, and courtesy. Please do not apply for this job if you don’t think you can meet these standards. Thank you!”
Guess which job post is going to attract highly qualified article writers? The ineffective job post will attract too many
low-skilled contractors that hope to land any kind of job.
This is important, as manually screening all the applications to weed out low-skilled applicants from the developing
nations can cost you a lot of time.
5. Interview and test your candidates
Once you’ve shortlisted some potential candidates, don’t skip the process of checking their references, portfolios, giving
test projects, and interviewing them.
The interview doesn’t have to be as formal as for a job interview, the goal here is for you to ask any questions or doubts
you might have with outsourcing to this specific person.
For them, it’s a chance to ask any questions on the project. A good specialist in their field will almost certainly have
some.
A good approach is to issue a test to all candidates before you hire them. This can be as simple as writing a few lines of
code or a paragraph describing your website.
It may sound unnecessary, but a simple test can help weed out bad candidates or ones who won’t be a good fit. Just
make sure to compensate applicants for their time so that you’re not requesting free work.
Lastly, if you offer low rates don’t expect amazing work. While the lowest offer may not always be the worst, don’t just
pick a freelancer or company solely because they’re the cheapest.
6. Manage and operate your outsourced team members
Once you have found your outsourced employee, set up regular chats with them over Skype or have weekly email check-
ins to ensure that everything is running smoothly and on schedule.
If you don’t want to be managing your outsourced team members, that’s fine. Just be sure that you
specify that in the second step of this list, and look for clear signs of reliability in the interviewing process.
A good and reliable outsourced employee will find it instinctive to regularly update you on the work done and any
setbacks and generally keep you in the loop on everything. Just don’t expect this from the cheapest option.
When outsourcing, it’s always a good idea to implement a time tracking solution of some sort to keep an eye on the
costs and how freelancers are spending the time.
Hubstaff’s time tracking solution provides you with a detailed overview of the time spent, how much projects
end up costing you and you can also opt to take screenshots of your employee.
Hubstaff also makes it easy for employees to send you a detailed invoice and for you to make the payments. If your
outsourced employees are going to be working with you long-term, the built-in project management and task tracking
tool will come in super handy. It lets you add a task, assign it to a team member, and track progress as well as time spent
on the task.
Other than Hubstaff, don’t hesitate to implement and use online tools to manage the people you outsource the work to.
Here’s a good guide to online collaboration tools to use for remote teams.

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Common mistakes when outsourcing and how to avoid them
1. Assuming that once you outsource, you won’t need managers
Big mistake.
Outsourced workers manage their own internal processes, but they can’t manage your business. It’s a good idea not to
micromanage remote workers, and assume they won’t do the same. Hire managers to take care of your business.
2. Don’t go on an outsourcing binge

As mentioned earlier in this article, you need to first establish if the task needs to be outsourced. If there is no value
derived from outsourcing, then undertake the task using in-house expertise.
3. Assuming fixed price bidding is the best route to outsourcing

Fixed price bidding that’s popular at online marketplaces is appropriate for short-term tasks such as graphic design or
blog writing. But trying to use it on more complex projects such as online marketing or SEO is ineffective. Be flexible and
explore hourly rates.
4. Assuming fair compensation is the lowest price negotiable

Cheap is never a good deal regardless of the country you are hiring from.
You have to keep your remote workers happy in order for them to do a good job. Fair compensation is usually
slightly higher than the market rate in the outsourcing location, but lower in your area.
5. Expecting all workers to adapt to your culture

The reality is that virtual workers will always try to adapt to keep you, the client, happy.
However, there are some issues to consider when working with cultures different from yours. For example, you may not
understand why someone is not available at certain times during the day because of religious requirements.
Further, success depends to a great extent on your overall attitude toward outsourced team members. Adaptation also
goes both ways. You must also understand their culture and embrace their differences.
6. Assuming the existing staff will manage the outsourcing process

Don’t bring on or promote a manager who is resistant to change, doesn’t want the job, is unavailable to work during
unusual hours or is insensitive to foreign cultures.
To be successful with outsourcing, you need a real champion to manage the process. Look for someone with excellent
communication skills and an in-depth understanding of outsourcing.
7. Assuming your IT budget will reduce

The reality is that when you hire virtual workers, you’ll begin to rely heavily on collaborative tools like Hubstaff time
tracking, data bandwidth, and new security tools.
You will need to increase your training budget for your existing in-house team, and commit funds to purchase new
hardware and software.
8. Thinking that the personal growth of virtual employees is none of your concern
Don’t view virtual workers as temps, or as an inexpensive way to staff a startup.
Never hire people based purely on what they can do now.
Bored and unmotivated people are rarely ever cost-effective hires or positive influences on your company culture.
9. Outsourcing only the stuff you don’t understand

You or a co-founder must understand every aspect of your business at the management level. Relying completely on a
virtual team means they are in charge, not you. If you have no idea where you are going, you will never get there.

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These are just a few tips to help you succeed in outsourcing. If you’d like more information check out other blog posts
on how to outsource software development, content marketing, how to hire writers and how
to outsource social media.
This post was originally published March 2, 2015, and updated April 2019.

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The Outsourcing/Offshoring Top 5: Suggested Best Practices
https://www.logigear.com/magazine/outsourcing-and-offshoring/the-outsourcingoffshoring-top-5-suggested-best-
practices/
By Hung Q. Nguyen and Rob Pirozzi
Introduction
The top five pitfalls encountered by organizations outsourcing/offshoring software testing are:
 Problematic communications
 Insufficient or mismatched skill sets at software test organization
 Management issues
 Vendor and infrastructure problems
 Offshoring risks
Following are five “best practice” recommendations to help avoid these pitfalls and successfully outsource your test
automation to an offshore partner.
Best Practice Recommendations
There are ways that the pitfalls associated with outsourcing/offshoring software testing can be avoided or resolved.
Following are five best practice suggestions of ways to avoid these pitfalls:
1. Build trust or use someone you can trust.
You need to work with a partner that you know has testing experience, an experienced staff, an understanding of
current methodologies, and competent domain knowledge.
Building or gaining trust can be accomplished in many ways, including:
1. Working with a test organization that you know or have used in the past.
2. Looking for test organizations that come highly recommended by individuals whose opinions you trust.
3. Using a small pilot project as a means of determining how dependable a test organization is. If you find you
can rely on them with a small pilot project, you can start to build up trust and move forward with larger more
critical work.
2. Train the test organization, or make sure they are fully competent to begin with.
It is rare to encounter an outsourced test organization that is “fully competent” as they are typically lacking in domain
knowledge, and knowledge of your processes, reporting, communications and more. Of course, if they are already
demonstrably fully competent for your application to begin with, that is a plus that will save a great deal of time.
More typically, you will have to invest in training the offshore testing partner.
Your offshore team needs to be trained in all aspects of your test process, including communication methods, status
reporting, test case management and defect tracking systems, the build process, how much time to spend analyzing
bugs to what backup work to do in case of a bad build or downtime, why certain metrics are important, and what
they mean, to reduce fear while instilling an understanding of measurement. Take the time required for this into
account, as well as the training costs, when you compare options and make your project plan.
Training your offshore test team and setting realistic expectations can stop or minimize most problems before they
cause mid-project headaches, stress or even test project failure. But training an offshore team is different than
training your domestic team. Your offshore test team is likely to be more technically skilled than your domestic test
team, but that does not eliminate, or even reduce, the need for training.
You will have cross-cultural rough spots as well, so train the local team on ways to recognize and deal with them.
Tackling these issues can be difficult and sensitive but very worthwhile. Trust takes a long time to build, but is
quickly lost.

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The domestic team must be aware of how their behavior will be interpreted by the offshore team. Many behaviors
that are common to Americans such as making jokes, political comments, or openly criticizing management, can be
viewed as disrespectful and inappropriate by your offshore test team. Training can make the domestic team more
aware of their own behavior and how it is viewed by the offshore team, preventing friction and misunderstandings
that can put the project at risk.
3. Get a methodology and/or tool to improve communications.
Adopt a methodology and tools that support the overall methodology to improve testing, defect tracking, automation,
and communications management, focusing on excellent and correct methods, ease of distributed team
communication, accessibility, and useful measures. The methodology needs to support a variety of test methods
and styles, be clear to understand, adequately test your product, and give you useful information.
4. Choose carefully what work to send offshore and what to keep at home.
In most cases, your offshore team will have a higher level of programming skill than your domestic team. It makes
sense to first send test automation offshore and keep user-focused scenario development and business process
testing in your domestic office where you have more knowledge of the domain and the user. Have the home team
focus on the users they should know well. Have the offshore team focus on technical-level testing and test
automation that computer science graduates would be happier and more knowledgeable testing.
5. Build a team with local leads as part of your team or outsource to a team with local test leads as part of
your team to manage the outsourced test effort.
A local lead that is part of your team, who understands the culture and communication nuances of the offshore
team, can lead the project, effectively communicate progress and metrics, and help to streamline the process.
Having non-specialized staff deal with the mountain of potential offshoring issues is at best a difficult task, which will
significantly slow down that person’s job duties and lead to many potential problems. Having a specialized local lead
to manage the outsourced effort can ultimately save time, save money, and save many hassles.
Conclusion
To summarize the preceding in a simple list, the five suggested best practices for outsourcing/offshoring software
testing are:
1. Build trust or use someone you can trust.

2. Train the test organization, or make sure they are fully competent to begin with.
3. Get a methodology and/or tool to improve communications.
4. Choose wisely which tasks to keep and which to send offshore to focus on what each team does best and
increase the productivity and savings of the outsourced test team.
5. Build a team with local leads as part of your team or outsource to a team with local test leads as part of your
team to manage the outsourced test effort.

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Offshoring Creative Production: 11 Best Practices
https://www.cellaconsulting.com/blog/offshoring-creative-production-11-best-practices/
Cyndi Urbano Jan. 26, 2010
A rule of thumb: “Offshoring projects will cost 4 times less but take twice as long to complete.”
The notion of saving up to 70% of labor costs can be very enticing, especially in tight economic times. However,
offshoring can be a daunting endeavor and one that can almost as easily waste money as save it. A poorly executed
attempt can also have a ruinous effect on an in-house team and even tarnish a company’s long-term brand. According to
Information Week, “two-thirds of companies report either no change or a worsening in customer satisfaction as a result
of business-process outsourcing.” And a 2005 Gartner study found that 80% of companies that outsource fail to meet
their cost-savings targets.
So no one should contemplate offshoring creative activities without significant research and planning. Here are some
suggestions from others who have paved the way.
Know why you are going offshore. Keep a laser focus on your objectives. Throughout the planning phase, validate
decisions against these objectives. This will help answer the questions around what to outsource and where (India,
Ireland, or Central/South America).
Choose an experienced partner you can trust. There are a lot of companies vying for your work. Some of the best advice
I ever heard regarding which company to choose? “Process cannot replace trust.” Check out the companies, their
clients, their references, their QA, everything. If you can’t develop a gut-level trust they will consistently help you meet
your objectives, move on.
Focus on core capabilities. When determining what will be sent offshore, divvy the work up based on what the offshore
team does often and well. Usually, that means the highly templated work, the routine production tasks (like converting
Quark to InDesign documents or dropping pre-approved text into pre-approved design templates). You will want to keep
the complex and strategic work close to home.
Pilot the initiative. It is always wise to start small -- to test the relationship, the processes, and the output before
committing to a long-term contract.
Plan, plan and plan some more. Understand when and how you are going to measure success. Set up a contingency
plan for when things go poorly. Determine how you will redirect resources if you decide to shut down the grand
experiment. And build Plan Bs and Plan Cs for everything. Assume everything will be harder and take longer than is
conceivable. Build that into your plans.

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Contract for services. Your contract should be highly detailed. Stipulate the scope, schedule and development processes
as well as your expectations. Include a Work Breakdown Structure. Establish which meetings are required. Most offshore
projects are paid on a time and materials basis but consider setting up a structure that requires the offshore company to
assume some of the upfront risk. A modified royalty system, for example, may work.
Manage the project professionally. More than anywhere else, offshore operations need to be managed closely. Develop
rigorous protocols and procedures. Monitor performance frequently and address issues directly and concisely as they
arise. Avoid taking shortcuts at all costs.
Nurture those close to home. Offshoring is always scary for an in-house creative organization – and even for their
customers. Take pains to take care of both. Understand the fears. Explain early and often why your plan makes sense
and how projects will be sent out and managed. Reinforce the important role that the in-house team will play. Reassure
the customers that they will still receive the quality they have grown accustomed to receiving.
Take care of those abroad, too. You want to minimize turnover, which is often high in offshore shops. So provide clear
expectations and guidance as well as frequent feedback, respect cultural differences, and foster a sense of community
and connectedness whenever possible.
Integrate the local and offshore teams. Most companies new to offshoring assume they can and should keep the two
teams completely separate. But experience has proven that setting up the offshore operation as a fully integrated
extension of the in-house team actually works far better. Encourage interactions, collaboration, information and joint
projects – just keep the roles and responsibilities clear as you do so.
Separate development and QA. These are two different skills, and it is always better to have someone other than the
originator check for errors. So make sure you have professionally trained quality assurance staff checking the work of the
designers and content developers. This is perhaps one way to have the local and offshore teams work together.
Invest in success. Put someone on-site as a program manager to ensure the success of the transition and ongoing
production. Necessary skills include organization, communications and people management. Also make it easy to send
people back and forth between the local and offshore organizations. This will not only facilitate conversations around
organization and process but help improve overall relations.
Cyndi Urbano is a consultant with Cella Consulting, a traditional management consultancy focused on optimizing in-
house creative operations. She brings her clients a wealth of experience in strategic planning, financial management
and personnel development based on her 20-plus years managing creative teams. Most recently, she headed up a full-
service in-house agency with more than 100 staff in 3 locations. She currently lives in Ashburn, VA with her husband and
daughter.

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Cyndi Urbano
Cella Senior Consultant Cyndi Urbano is a former in-house creative leader offering deep expertise in financial analysis
and modeling, organizational design and process re-engineering. She has managed in-house departments of more than
100 creatives and has consulted for creative organizations across various industries with teams as few as 10 employees
to as many as 400-plus team members.

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Appendix

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