First Factory

The First Factory Candidate Experience

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

At First Factory, it is important that every applicant have a quality candidate experience, one where you feel respected, listened to, and informed. In every hiring, there are two decisions being made: the company making a decision to hire the applicant, and the applicant making the decision to join the company.

We don’t see engineers, designers, analysts, and other software creators as interchangeable resources, nor do we hire simply to fill an open client position. We value what you do. We care about your career development goals and the unique experiences and perspectives you can bring to the team. As a company, we are strengthened with each new team member that brings a commitment to quality, a passion for learning, and a great sense of teamwork.

We value and respect your time and effort. We know you have a lot of opportunities, and it is important for us to be respectful of your time and ensure that our company values are reflected throughout your application process.  We have streamlined the application process, so you are not spending unnecessary time filling out long forms or participating in countless interviews. You will be welcomed and accompanied by a recruiter during each step of the process, from the initial HR screening to the technical interview and through the client interview, if applicable. You will always receive feedback, insights about the position and the people you will meet, and guidance each step of the way.

Listening to what you need.  During the interview process with recruiters, we will, of course, discuss who we are as a company, what we believe in, and the benefits we offer. It is very important that we learn what you are looking for, too: your career goals, technology stacks, role expectations, work-life balance, and more. We invite you to use this time to ask us questions about anything that you are interested in. Recruiters are advisors, too, and have plenty of tips to offer.

Transparency and communication are key. Our primary goal during the application process is for us to get to know each other. We view the process less as a test, where you need to score at a certain level to proceed to the next step, but rather as learning if we are a good match for each other given the current open positions. We will be transparent on what skills we are looking for, and if at any point during the process, we do not believe the current opportunity is the right fit, we will tell you. We look for a solid understanding of the fundamentals in the technology you have experience and interest in, how you have approached learning those skills, and how you approach problems. We will not close the door to future opportunities should the current open position not be the right fit.

Should you have an interview with a client (something that is not always necessary), we will provide you with as much information about their business, the team you may be working with, and the technologies they will be using. We suggest that you do a little research on them (review their website and their specific job description, if applicable) so that you can be prepared to ask them questions and demonstrate your appetite for this opportunity.

We never stop learning. Technology is constantly changing, and our clients are looking for contributors who demonstrate solid problem-solving and communication skills. Each day, we will be faced with new challenges, and it is our never-ending curiosity that will allow us to solve those problems and grow professionally. No applicant or employee is going to have the exact skills for every role. What is important is that with the right foundation and capacity for learning, we support each other in these shared experiences. We teach each other, and we learn from each other so that we can grow together.

We aim to make your application experience easy and informative. We will treat every applicant with the same thoughtfulness and kindness that we would expect because, after all, we hope that we will soon be colleagues.

Client Experience: Committed to the Extra Mile

Any way you look at it, we have you covered, whether one is a client or an employee. 

The pride we take in our work and our investment in the success of our partners is a reflection of everyone at First Factory. Our management structure, and the tailored responsibilities of those roles, are one example of how we value relationships above all and ensure the highest code quality while exceeding client expectations. We fundamentally believe in the role of a Manager as a Service, whereby managers support and address the needs of the employee as they recognize their potential and acquire the skills needed to succeed on the discrete tasks at hand and develop professionally. 

Here’s a look at two of our key positions: the Client Experience Manager and the Engineering Manager:

Client Experience Manager

Client Experience Managers (CEM) are proven managers who are quality-driven, highly hands-on, and skilled in empathy-based mentoring for software development teams. In most cases, the CEM is the manager to whom the employee directly reports, and under their purview, employees receive HR Ops support, ongoing 360-degree feedback, and mentoring – mainly focused on soft skills and career development. 

The CEM is the primary point of contact for our clients, whether the engagement is a Staff Augmentation or a Milestone-based Project model. They meet with client stakeholders (bi-weekly or monthly) without the development team to garner honest and critical feedback, to gain awareness of key milestones and the business impact of the work being done, and to understand the company roadmap and evolving development resource needs. Much of this feedback will be synthesized and shared with the Engineering Managers and the Executive group. Requirements for new positions will be shared with our Talent Staffing team. 

The CEM will also ensure a smooth on-ramp for new resources joining our client teams, with particular focus being paid in the first few weeks to ensure we exceed expectations from the start and meet all compliance requirements, such as time-tracking and reporting. For in-depth knowledge of the clients and individuals employees assigned, Client Experience Managers will only be responsible for approximately 12 clients and/or 35 employees. There is never a charge to the client for the ongoing support from one of our Client Experience Managers.

Engineering Manager

Engineering Managers (EM) are technical leads for the engineers they support… and so much more. Each EM possesses a deep understanding of Software Development patterns and architectures, has demonstrated experience working with Scrum, is fully comfortable with Full Stack development, and has experience with cloud platforms, such as Azure or AWS. They mentor team members through task estimations, code reviews, pair programming, and regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings. EMs also assist in the hiring and development of new First Factory employees by conducting technical interviews with candidates and supporting their ongoing learnings through tech talks, mentoring, and internally written or curated courses.

For Staff Augmentation engagements, if the client permits, our EMs will be introduced to the client team, gain access to code repositories, and be invited as optional to sprint planning, backlog grooming, retrospectives, and even DSUs. They will dedicate up to 5 hrs per week to the team, if needed, at no charge to the client. This is to ensure that we always understand the requirements, dependencies, internal coding standards, and challenges prior to implementing complex tasks. With this access, our EM’s can do code reviews and help triage issues in order to reduce the dependency on the technical leads of the client. If the EM is not permitted access to the code repositories and is not introduced to the client’s development team, they will still provide outstanding support to the First Factory engineers assigned. Of course, our EM’s can always be reached to help clients identify technical solutions. Any feedback the Client Experience Manager receives about the developers will be shared with the EM, and it is the EMs responsibility to put the feedback into action, providing tangible results for employees and clients alike.

For client projects, EMs participate in the gathering of project requirements and then complete research to help create technical project plans. They write, review and revise product requirements and specifications, provide estimates, commit to a roadmap and oversee every step of the build. They are true professionals when it comes to software development and project delivery. 

Since the demands of the Engineering Managers can be high and in an effort to not rush the quality interactions with the developers, each EM will only be responsible for approximately 7 clients and/or 18 employees.

Values

We are here to support each other, challenge each other, and grow personally and professionally together.  There is always more to learn. There is always room to improve. Our commitment to the success of our partners demonstrated each day through the passion and dedication of our employees is what we believe makes the experience uniquely First Factory.

Navigating Remote Team Management

First Factory logo, work from home desk setup, 20 Years Developing Success banner

Managing remote teams with the right guidance at the helm.

Charting the Course

Working remotely can be challenging, but the most productive teams in the world are adept at collaborating beyond the office walls, whether members are on the road, at an off-site with a client or on their couch from the comfort of their home.

As a remote worker, it can be easier to get distracted, lose motivation and feel isolated from your team, but the flip side is that you can protect yourself against interruptions and create a personally optimal space to work in. And if that means wearing a swimsuit and a hoodie so long as you are not on camera during a video call, so be it.

As a manager, different skill sets are needed to get the best performances out of your crew and keep them engaged. Not everyone is initially comfortable in a remote position, and even if one is capable and productive at home, it is easy for islands to form and your team to drift apart. You have to create the bridges that connect them. This isn’t about reining in your employees, rather it is providing them a lifeline should they need it. Plus it keeps you fed with updates which lets you make better-informed decisions and do so quickly with changing tides. 

If you trust the employees that you have hired, have a clear sense of upcoming work and have the tools and lightweight processes to keep the team well connected, remote teams can outperform those tethered to their cubicles.

Finding One’s Bearing

Being apart means we need to be better prepared. Using methodologies similar to Agile practices of breaking a team workload down into 2-week cycles, rather than just setting quarterly or monthly goals, is one way to clearly define a more manageable scope of work. This can get everyone rowing together with all eyes fixed on each of the upcoming milestone markers.

Scheduling quick meetings a couple of times per week to quickly go around the horn (Google Hangout, Skype, Zoom, etc.) and articulate updates and challenges does wonders for addressing issues before conditions get rough. Longer meetings every couple of weeks with the team can give you the chance to address specific business items in detail while also giving each team member the ability to be heard.

Meetings that fail often do so because facilitators are weak. This is doubly true for virtual meetings. Strong hosts ensure that attendees get a fair opportunity to contribute, coaxing the more reticent employees to share their progress and keeping the boasters from taking the team off course. Stay on the agenda and create parking lot items for follow-up outside of the session. One-on-one meetings with remote managers or team leaders are vital for hearing issues that percolate up and give you a chance to provide coaching for the remote manager. If any part of the team is remote for a meeting, strongly consider that everyone attend remotely as the behavior in a conference room is to talk only to the people in front of you and ignore the attendees on the phone or video call.

Don’t discount the importance of lunchroom encounters, water cooler conversations and simply being able to lean over and chat with coworkers. You’ll need to encourage and even facilitate those encounters. This can be done by scheduling fifteen-minute video call coffee breaks with a few colleagues, carving out some time to play online games or asking teammates to share photos of their pets from home.

Downwind Communication

The common thread across highly performing teams is communication. Transparency is the foundation of trust, which is the cornerstone of any solid relationship. Your team must trust the captain at the helm in order to be willing to commit themselves to the cause. Disclosing expectations, challenges, variables and potential pitfalls doesn’t scare the team, rather it provides them with the information they need to successfully navigate and increases the likelihood of success. Artifacts, such as documentation, recordings, meeting notes and the like, all serve to ensure that teams have the information they need and can review, especially when remote team members may not be immediately available to assist.

Strategic communication is essential but managers and stakeholders need to get updates and feedback from all. Daily status reports, quick standardized snippets containing work completed today, work planned for tomorrow and any obstacles, is a terrific way to keep tabs on the details without micromanaging. If status reports are required for all team members, including management, then everyone understands that this is about clarity and collaboration for the benefit of the team, and not “Big Brother” casting a discerning eye on them. It is highly important that escalation processes are communicated and leveraged. Responding immediately to an escalation with “acknowledged,” plus the next steps removes any ambiguity if a reported issue is being handled or not. There should be a clear response timeline and escalation hierarchy defined, as remote team members may not have the luxury of running over to your office.

The Right Gear

In order to be effective with a remote workforce, the tools used daily also need to foster collaboration. Work from home equipment needs to be issued, should be on par with traditional office configurations and maintenance and repair processes need to be identified. VPNs or other remote access options may be required, including smartphones for two-factor authentication. Acceptable bandwidth and cost of internet will be core issues for discussion. Cloud-based productivity tools, like those found in Google Workspace: Google’s Gmail, Drive, Spreadsheets, Calendar and Meet, allow for real-time collaboration. Other apps like Slack bring team productivity to new levels with individual, group and company-wide chat, plus internet calls and file sharing. Leveraging ticketing systems for task assignments and managing workflow and team tempo can be done in robust systems such as Jira, or more simple interfaces like Trello. Usage of these tools requires some ground rules, such as ensuring that the background visible during a video call with clients or colleagues is professional and that you have the “all clear” from the IT Security department.

You should also make clear that sensitive data is distributed only through appropriate channels. Policies around the acceptable use of company assets (computers, cell phones, licensed software) need to be in place, as often, employees who work from home forget temporarily that they are using company-issued devices and need to be more aware of web surfing and downloads that could introduce malware. Working in different locations requires airtight processes and a greater sensitivity to communication between colleagues.

Smooth Sailing

Done effectively, remote teams have proven to be equally or more successful than co-located teams. The best teams are nimble and swift and are best prepared if drifting into uncharted territory. Offering part-time work from home arrangements, or fully remote positions, allows companies to tap talent outside of the immediate vicinity, have a business continuity plan (should it be impossible to work at the office) and is a great benefit for recruiting and retaining the best employees.