Erwan Girard, CPO at Scality, explains how he decides which in:house teams need to be supported by freelancers as well as how Scality is able to search for and onboard developers in just 10 days.
Dustin Robinson (Interviewer from Malt): We have Erwan Girard, Chief Product Officer at Scality with us here. Scality is a very cool and promising company that's growing rapidly. They specialize in data management solutions with file and object software storage. Though this can sound very technical, it's really important to the infrastructure for any tech company. Scality was founded in France but is now headquartered in San Francisco and has offices around the globe. Erwan, can you tell us more about Scality and how you're working with freelancers today?
Erwan Girard (CPO of Scality): We are the core of the data infrastructure of our customers. We serve thousands of customers around the world and millions of end users to our customers. This is why customer satisfaction is paramount at Scality. And through Malt we found a good way to onboard skills that we don't have or to onboard people to deliver a project for our customers when we have spikes in demands. Malt helps us ensure that we can really align to what our customers are expecting from us. In a few numbers, 100% of our projects have benefited at some stage from a freelancer that we hired on Malt.
We began working with Malt over a year ago. Today we have onboarded more than 30 freelancers in 85% of our teams to enhance delivery of objectives. And the freelancers in our enduring workforce, say product and engineering, represent 10 to 15% depending on the customer demand. So 10 to 15% of our engineering workforce can be made up of freelancers.
Key figures:
- 100% of our projects have benefited at some stage from a freelancer hired on Malt
- Onboarded 30+ freelancers in various teams
- 85% of our teams have onboarded a freelancer to enhance delivery of objectives
- Freelancers represent 10:15% of our enduring workforce, e.g. product and engineering
Dustin Robinson: When such a significant percentage of all the projects at Scality are using blended teams, how do you decide which projects freelancers work on and what topics in those projects they own?
Erwan Girard: When we have a development need, we ask ourselves “does this need require additional skills or does it also require a deep knowledge of our product?”. Like any company we have some tribal knowledge that isn’t written and formalized. We also analyze whether it's a short:term need for less than six months or a longer project. When it’s a short project that requires a skill that we don't have internally, but not any specific experience or tribal knowledge on the product, we hire a freelancer.
When it’s a short project that requires a skill that we don't have internally, but not any specific experience or tribal knowledge on the product, we hire a freelancer.
Dustin Robinson: You've previously mentioned the importance of flexibility and speed for core projects that need additional skills. But are there any other positive side effects of working with freelancers?
Erwan Girard: There's quite a few positive effects. I mean, tribal knowledge is great, but not formalizing it isn’t. So asking our leads to onboard freelancers regularly based on skills they need will entice them into formalizing the knowledge transfer process more. So it actually helps us better formalize our processes, our APIs, and other integral aspects of our product.
Another great effect is that it helps us bring on a fresh perspective. Freelancers bring an external view on what we do internally. This helps us identify not only the bad processes but also the best practices. Sometimes, when you do something really well, you're not always aware. And somebody with an external perspective can look at how we work and say, “Oh, wow! This works great”.
Freelancers also help us identify the processes that may not be up to industry standards. We have a very low turnover at Scality. So we have people being educated for 5:7 years. But, this also means that sometimes we can lose touch with the industry, and working with freelancers provides us with a way to challenge our processes.
Another great effect is that it helps us bring on a fresh perspective. Freelancers bring an external view on what we do internally. This helps us identify not only the bad processes but also the best practices.
Dustin Robinson: This concept of a dynamic feedback loop with freelancers is really interesting because a lot of companies actually hire consultants to come in and tell them those things in addition to hiring freelancers to do the operational work. But you’ve blended that, which is also more cost efficient.
One of the things that I'm curious about as somebody who works for Malt is why did you choose Malt specifically?
Erwan Girard: At one point we decided to be more dynamic in the way we manage our engineering resources in order to align with our customer expectations. At the time, we looked at several different possibilities. Malt came into the picture through a personal referral, and it worked the best. We also did some work on our end to streamline the process of onboarding a freelancer. But when it comes to defining project needs, budget approval, and hiring for specific skills, Malt was spot on every time.
We now have a pool of freelancers that we work with regularly depending on client needs. So I think the success of Malt at Scality is due to the fact that the profiles that we're looking for are well matched and the Malt team is very easy to work with. We also have a great alignment financially and the payment process is really simple.
The success of Malt at Scality is due to the fact that the profiles that we're looking for are well matched and the Malt team is very easy to work with. We also have a great alignment financially and the payment process is really simple.
Malt has different payment options for clients to ensure that our freelancers get paid quickly. If you have more questions:
Dustin Robinson: If you had to give advice to other organizations working with freelancers, what are the best practices you recommend?
Erwan Girard: I would recommend what works for us: help the leads hire a freelancer.
Every time we say to a lead, “Hey, can we outsource?” or “Can we get a freelancer on that?”, the lead hears, “Oh, I need to work on a job description, I need to get the budget, I need to onboard the guy. I need to do a whole lot of interviews”. So, he doesn't hear: “You're trying to help me”.
But at the company scale it is way more efficient to get a freelancer and get a lead focused on the core of our products.
To achieve that, we streamlined how we budget, hire, and onboard. That means having a template for the job description and having in place a clear interview process. This also helps relieve the hiring pressure on our leads.
So now when we speak to a lead, we can say “Hey, do you think we can outsource this to a freelancer? It's just a few clicks away and takes two minutes!”
In some cases, we wrapped up the process in 10 days – starting from identification of a skill need, defining the need, and the freelancer showing up to our office on Monday morning.
We streamlined how we budget, hire, and onboard. That means having a template for the job description and having in place a clear interview process. This also helps relieve the hiring pressure on our leads.
So now when we speak to a lead, we can say “Hey, do you think we can outsource this to a freelancer? It's just a few clicks away and takes two minutes!”
In some cases, we wrapped up the hiring process in 10 days – starting from identification of a skill need, defining the need, and the freelancer showing up to our office on Monday morning.
Dustin Robinson: Yes, because for hiring managers the time needed to fill a vacant role is one of their biggest pain points. In tech, it can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months to hire someone full:time.
Erwan Girard: Yes, some skills are harder to find. But, the last thing that I recommend is that the freelancer joins the team at the beginning of the sprint and is a full part of the team. It does not matter so much if the freelancer works on:site or remotely, but if they are embedded in the sprints with the team from day one, it is key for project success.
