BAND TOGETHER
The best teams work as a cohesive unit. While every developer on our nearshore development team may be a rock star in their area of expertise, there are no solo performances. We are most successful when our developers are a natural extension of your in-house team and put your company goals above all else. To us, that means no useless overhead positions and no imposed processes. Direct access to your product stakeholders is the best way to ensure we understand your technology plans, coding practices, dependencies, project milestones, business logic, user profiles and your business goals. We work best when we are as invested in your outcomes as you are.
You always have backstage access to the developers who share similar time zones, are fluent in written and spoken English, and you will always have full control over what systems and tools we will be using on your projects. The team is highly comfortable with Agile practices, meeting daily for stand-ups, committing to task estimates in sprints, participating in retrospectives and more. We are all equipped with the latest technologies, both in-office and work from home, and are expected to be on video for calls, respond quickly via Slack, email or any other channels your team uses to maximize productivity. No matter the challenge, we won’t miss a beat. Working in harmony increases velocity and quality, and lets us all enjoy the sweet sounds of success.
BACK UP PLAYERS
Our nearshore development team is approachable, respectful and has an insatiable thirst for learning. There are no lead singer egos here. We are not afraid to ask questions about implementation decisions and objectives. We never sit idle waiting for work and if anything, you’ll have to slow us down. While we do not force communication through a project manager and work hard to keep any non-development-related roles from slowing down any velocity and adding to your costs, our Development Managers, COO and CEO are accessible when needed. These resources will be intimately involved in the early phases to ensure that onboarding is smooth. We are highly focused on making sure environments and access are set-up quickly so that our developers are in tune and can be productive from day one. Our management team will hold weekly or bi-weekly meetings with key stakeholders at your company to ensure that the team is performing above expectations, marching toward key milestones and aware of any possible changes in your resourcing needs.
AUDITIONS
We hand-pick the developers that we think will work with your technologies and your team. Personalities and working styles are as key to a successful relationship as the skill to get the job done. Whether your needs are ReactJS, Java, .NET, ReactNative or a host of other technologies, these are just some of the many tools our developers keep at the ready. The real talent is in problem-solving. We train our team to focus on building you a quality product efficiently, with an eye toward keeping long-term maintenance and refactors to an absolute minimum. Time is spent upfront ensuring that requirements, use cases and acceptance criteria are clear. The bulk of the work happens before fingers hit the keyboard; coding the solution should be the easy part. Our developers understand that the decisions they make today will impact users and business down the road. Unit testing is becoming a standard practice across teams at First Factory, and if we have the opportunity we would like to build this into the plan. Most importantly is that we guarantee your satisfaction within the first thirty days: if you are not happy with a new team member’s performance, we won’t charge you.
CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONALS
What you will come to understand immediately is that we at First Factory value the relationship above all else. While your nearshore development team needs over time may change, we want to be a partner throughout. We are honest, transparent and operate with the highest level of integrity. If something doesn’t go as planned, we’re committed to making it right. We will show up on time to every gig and will always be prepared to play. If we can’t fill a need or accomplish what you set out to achieve, we will absolutely be upfront about it. We don’t pull the bait and switch on development resources; we don’t hide our developers from you, and we certainly do not farm our work out to other agencies. We do our best to remove the barrier between client and vendor, and we facilitate seamless collaboration.
ON TOUR
Whoever said, “Don’t go chasing waterfalls,” hasn’t fallen in love with some of the best Costa Rica has to offer. If you are interested in checking out our offices, we welcome the visit. We can be your personal roadie, set you up with RFID ID badges for building entry and get you fingerprinted to have access to our secure workspace where inside the amazing energy of the team is palpable. Our clients feel at home in our large office in Heredia, with some clients sending their team down numerous times per year to work side-by-side with our developers. It isn’t necessary for success that the teams have co-location time, but no one has ever regretted the trip down. We’d also love to show you around if you have yet to experience the beautiful landscape and warmhearted people. It is less than a five-hour flight from both NY & LA area airports to the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), which makes it hard to find an excuse not to visit. To us, our team is your team and you are welcome anytime.
ENCORE
The right people, the right priorities and the right collaborations. These are just a few of the things that make us uniquely First Factory.
Would you like to learn more about how First Factory pieces together the ultimate ensembles in order to build long-lasting relationships with our clients? Don Gregori, Chief Operating Officer, mused on the topic during a Devchat.tv podcast, Outsourcing Oasis, which focused on building long-term relationships with clients.
