Durable Teams vs. Managed Outcomes: Which Staff Augmentation Solution Is Right for You?

When your organization needs to extend the reach of its technology teams, you face a range of options. You may not have the time, budget, and internal bandwidth to onboard new hires. In situations like this, staff augmentation is the clear choice to bring your organization closer to its goals.

But what approach to staff augmentation is the best fit for what your company has to accomplish? When you work with an experienced partner like Kitestring, you can choose from an assortment of custom solutions. Our approach is designed to be as turnkey or collaborative as your organization requires.

Staff Augmentation: A Range of Possibilities to Suit Your Needs

Kitestring’s disparate service staff augmentation offerings add technical talent to your teams and are flexible, depending on your needs. But each occupies a continuum in terms of how much management you need to invest when adding to your team. 

Below, we’ve outlined the five tiers of staff augmentation service that run the gamut from most responsibility to the least:

Service Offering	What the Client Manages
Direct Hire	Hiring decisions and long-term role integration.
Contract to Hire	Individuals upon joining your staff as well as assessing fit.
Staff Augmentation (Co-Engineering)	Individuals and their daily responsibilities.
Durable Teams (Managed Capacity)	A project’s goals, inputs, or outputs. Kitestring manages each individual added to your team.
Managed Outcome (Custom UX and Software Dev)	Initial requirements for a project only.

Of the options listed above, two are likely less familiar if your organization has just begun exploring staff augmentation: Durable Teams and Managed Outcomes. Below, we break down the differences between both approaches along with real-world advantages of each based on a few recent engagements.

Durable Teams: Greater Continuity and Consistency for Your Project

Also known as managed capacity, Kitestring’s Durable Teams service focuses on providing you with a long-term, cohesive technology team integrated with your operations. Our aim is to ensure continuity and consistency as a project proceeds, but you still manage the team’s goals as well as any shifts in priorities.

Flexibility is the core benefit to a Durable Teams approach to staff augmentation. Kitestring still handles the responsibility of putting together the talent and managing that team at a monthly cost. However, the goals for your project are still more than able to evolve.

For example, the general parameters of a project may be to test a proof of concept for a software application for the next two weeks. Then, we can lead work on that project with a full, cross-functional product team. If the concept doesn’t work, we can easily pivot and work on something else. But the team stays together and continues to work on your behalf.

Durable Teams can also function akin to co-engineering, which means we can assemble a team to work alongside your existing staff. Fundamentally, if you have any unknowns associated with your project, a Durable Teams approach allows Kitestring to handle shifts in scope. In addition, you also have the flexibility to add additional talent onto your project as the need arises.

Using Durable Teams to Support a Supply Chain App

Our recent work with a supply chain startup illustrated the benefits of a Durable Teams approach to staff augmentation. The company came to Kitestring uncertain of their technical requirements beyond a need to build an app. Durable Teams enabled us to build the team while also shifting its skills to support what the project needed at a fixed monthly cost.

Because of the uncertainty regarding what the app would need to function, the project pivoted often. We incorporated rotational talent, which allowed us to pull in a UX designer for part of the engagement. Then, once that level of work was complete we pulled in an iPhone expert to finish that side of the project. The project remained at the same monthly cost to complete, but we could shift the talent and resources required as it evolved.

Managed Outcomes: Assured Results with a Focus on Project Goals

A Managed Outcomes collaboration is a fully deliverables-based partnership. In these arrangements, Kitestring assumes all the responsibility for delivering specific project outcomes. As a client, you don’t have to worry about any of the management of the project and can focus on the results.

The core challenge with a Managed Outcomes project is fully defining its scope and needs before it begins. If you already have an app mapped out by your internal team but need technical support to bring it over the finish line, Managed Outcomes is the best fit.

Often, companies consider Managed Outcomes when they have a fixed budget in place and a firm deadline to implementation. You have $200,000 to put toward an app, and you need it by January. If you work with us, then we assume the risk of completing the project at that time for that amount. Whatever talent is needed to satisfy those goals, we work to solve that puzzle.

However, Managed Outcomes is much more rigid. Working in your office would be inappropriate because your staffing partner is assuming all the risk and needs a controlled environment in place. If your project requirements are not fully defined, or if your team doesn’t complete its deliverables on time, then your project will miss its target goal.

Applying Managed Outcomes to a Yard Management Company

An autonomous vehicle company came to Kitestring to support its yard management capabilities for a retailer. Their team had a fixed budget and a target date for launch, and they needed an experienced partner to complete the project.

Kitestring assembled a technical team to handle delivery, and our expertise aided in maintaining the project’s scope. We were able to remove one of the layers of integration for their client, keeping their team focused on the end product. By eliminating worries about translating the company’s client data to a new system, we ensured the project met its ambitious goals.

What Staff Augmentation Approach Will Work for Your Business?

Ultimately, your company’s requirements are the best indicator for an appropriate staff augmentation method. Maybe you need a new system, but you’re not entirely sure how well it will integrate with your current technologies. Or, maybe you’ve already done the legwork and planning of a specific project but you need a skilled team to make it happen.Whatever gaps you need to fill in your technical capacity, Kitestring has the experience and skills to help. If this sounds like a solution that will bring your company closer to its goals, we should talk.