Before founding TechAnywhere with Andy Charters, Steve Stovold ran a successful software development agency in London. He had also spent more than 25 years working in software development, including roles as a CTO, Solutions Architect and Lead Developer.
“Building an overseas development team was not my first choice. Having everyone together mattered to me. Our whole team worked from an office in Islington, and that created strong collaboration, camaraderie and company culture. Remote working was also far less established than it is today. But we eventually hit a problem, we were having to turn work away. To grow the business, we needed more developers, and we simply could not find enough of them locally.
For years, I resisted looking overseas. In doing so, I was restricting the growth of the business. Eventually, it became clear that building an overseas team was the most practical way forward.”
The challenge is not simply finding talented developers in another country. It is creating the conditions that allow those developers to become effective members of your existing team.
That means thinking about communication, expectations, management, trust and development processes from the outset.
Some of this advice is specific to working with Filipino developers, but many of the principles apply wherever your overseas team is based.
Our aim is to help you build an overseas development team that works as part of your team, not simply a collection of remote developers.
Why build an overseas development team?
For many organisations, the decision to hire overseas begins with a practical problem: growth requires more development capacity, but the right people are difficult or expensive to recruit locally.
An overseas development team expands your available talent pool. Instead of limiting recruitment by geography, roles can be filled based on the technical skills, experience and team fit the organisation needs.
That was the challenge that led to TechAnywhere’s move into the Philippines. After considering locations across Eastern Europe, Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, the Philippines stood out for several reasons.
Why the Philippines?
English is widely spoken, and developers are willing to work UK hours. There is also a large pool of technical talent and a culture that our client’s have found positive, enthusiastic, diligent and keen to learn.
However, access to talent is only part of the equation.
One of the most important lessons from building a team in the Philippines was the value of having someone on the ground who understands both sides of the relationship.
Cultural differences can influence communication, management expectations and how people respond to feedback.
These differences are not necessarily barriers, but they need to be understood.
Having local support helps bridge that gap. It allows developers to understand and work within the culture and expectations of a UK organisation. Neither side is navigating those differences alone. TechAnywhere co-founder Andy is based in Manila and has over 20 years of working with tech professionals in the Philippines.
That principle is central to building an overseas team successfully.
Geography gives you to a wider talent pool, but it’s structure, communication and cultural understanding turn those individuals into an effective team.
Onboarding starts before the developer’s first day
Successful onboarding begins before a new developer joins the team.
Technical skills may be right for the role, but they don’t help that person understand how your organisation operates. Developers need to understand what is expected, how work is managed and how their role fits within the wider team.
This means defining the working environment before onboarding begins.
Set clear expectations
Be clear on what doing a good job looks like from the outset. This includes expectations around work quality, delivery times, communication preferences and the developer’s individual responsibilities.
Don’t rely on assumptions. Expectations that are common in the team or obvious to you may not be obvious to someone joining from a different organisation or working culture.
Being specific gives developers a clear benchmark. It also creates a stronger basis for feedback if those expectations are not being met.
Establish how work will be managed
Before a new hire starts, decide how tasks will be assigned and tracked. For example, this might be JIRA, Trello or Asana. Detail how the new developer must use any of the project management systems already in place.
Having a consistent process everyone understands is more important than the platform itself.
The same principle applies to coding practices. Defining the technology stack is not enough. Teams also need standards for how development work should be completed. Otherwise individual developers will approach the same task very differently.
Give people structure from day one
Clear processes make integration easier.
A new developer should not spend their first weeks trying to work out who makes decisions, where information lives or how progress is communicated.
Establishing responsibilities, expectations and development processes before their start date, your onboarding focuses on helping the developer become part of the team.
These provide the foundation for good communication, one of the most important aspects of managing an overseas development team.
Communication: be clearer than you think you need to be
Communication matters in any development team. With an overseas team, it needs to be clear and deliberate.
Developers in the Philippines generally speak excellent English. However, English is still a second language, and differences in phrasing or cultural context can sometimes create misunderstandings.
More meetings or longer instructions won’t help. But precise communication will.
Be precise
Keep your requirements specific and avoid unnecessarily complicated language. If something can be interpreted in several ways, be sure to clarify exactly what is required.
It can help to explain the same point in different ways. And if you are uncertain, ask the developer to explain their understanding of the requirement back to you.
This is key when discussing specifications, priorities, deadlines or changes to existing work.
Make regular communication part of the process
Daily stand-ups are opportunity to review progress, identify problems and clarify priorities. But regular contact also helps the team develop relationships and build trust.
You don’t need to monitor every hour of a developer’s day but create enough regular communication that you can identify questions and problems early.
Clear communication also creates an environment where developers feel comfortable speaking up. That’s important.
If in doubt, say it again. There is no harm in reiterating an important point.
Create an environment where people can speak up
It’s important that developers feel comfortable saying when something is unclear, unrealistic or going wrong.
When working with teams in the Philippines there can be greater deference towards seniority and authority. This can make a new developer reluctant to challenge a decision or deliver unwelcome news.
The rule is don’t assume silence is the same as agreement.
Ask the questions directly
Use regular stand-ups to ask whether the developers understand your requests. Find out if anything is blocking their progress and that the deadlines remain achievable.
Asking people individually creates an opportunity to raise something they might otherwise keep to themselves.
The response matters too. When someone asks for clarification or raises a potential problem, treat it constructively. Doing so demonstrates to the wider team that speaking up is genuinely encouraged.
Trust develops over time. Consistently showing that questions and concerns are welcome helps you create the secure environment developers need to perform effectively.
Give the team structure
An overseas development team needs clear structure. It needs systems for allocating work, monitoring progress and maintaining consistent development practices.
Use a defined system for managing work
JIRA, Trello, Asana or another suitable platform can provide a central place for assigning and tracking tasks. The platform doesn’t matter as much as the importance that everyone follows the same process.
Your developers should know what they are responsible for, the priorities and how their work relates to the overall business objectives.
Break work into manageable tasks
Large pieces of work are difficult to estimate accurately.
Keep a task as simple and as focussed as possible. Don’t trust an estimate unless it is broken down into smaller chunks of work, that do not exceed two hours.
Define how development should be done
Sharing a technology stack does not automatically create a consistent development approach.
Be sure to set expectations around coding structure and how changes should be handled. Without this, individual developers will approach the same problem in very different ways.
The more explicit the structure, the easier it becomes for your developers to understand each other’s code and collaborate..
Build quality into the development process
Make quality checks part of the development process rather than once the work has been completed.
Establish a clear testing regime and separate user acceptance testing from the live environment.
Development plans and database changes should also follow an agreed process.
The exact approach will depend on your product, technology and existing engineering processes. But what really matters is consistency.
Show developers how work progresses from development through testing and approval. They should also understand what needs to happen before a change reaches the live environment.
This gives the whole team a common definition of completed work and reduces the potential for reliance on individual working practices.
Onboarding is only the beginning
Understanding a product, building relationships and becoming confident within a new team all take time. This makes ongoing management as important as the initial onboarding process.
Continue reinforcing the principles established during onboarding:
- clear expectations
- regular communication
- constructive feedback
- consistent development processes
- opportunities to raise questions and concerns
Where performance falls short, be specific about what expectations have not been met. Invest time in helping the developer understand what needs to improve.
Developers should also know when they are meeting expectations, rather than being left to assume that no feedback means good performance.
Over time, this consistency helps build the trust and familiarity that turn remote developers into established team members.
Overseas developer onboarding checklist
The onboarding process will vary between organisations, but the foundations are similar and should be established before the developer arrives.
Before the start date
- Define the responsibilities and performance expectations.
- Prepare access to the required systems and development environments.
- Establish any task management and communication processes.
- Document any relevant coding and development standards.
During the first week
Introduce the developer to the team and explain individual responsibilities.
- Provide an overview of the product, systems and your current priorities.
- Explain how tasks are assigned, reviewed and approved.
- Establish the routine for regular stand-ups and your communication preferences.
- Clearly define the initial work.
During the first month
- Continually check the developer’s understanding of what’s expected. Don’t assume everything is clear.
- Review their progress against the expectations you established at the beginning.
- Identify any technical or other knowledge gaps.
- Give specific feedback and allow opportunities for questions.
Ongoing
- Maintain regular communication.
- Keep responsibilities and priorities clear.
- Encourage developers to raise concerns and uncertainties early.
- Review their performance and deliver constructive feedback.
- Update processes as the team and product evolve.
Onboarding should create clarity. A developer should know what needs to be done, how it should be done, who they work with and what good performance looks like.
Building an overseas team that delivers
Having access to talented people is the start. But maintaining that performance also depends on the structure around them.
Having clear expectations, regular communication, defined development processes and a culture where people can raise concerns all help remote developers become effective members of your organisation.
This is also why overseas recruitment should not end when someone accepts the role.
TechAnywhere supports the process throughout. We understand your requirements and find you the right developers. We become part of the onboarding process, the integration and importantly, ongoing support.
With offices in the UK and Philippines, TechAnywhere helps bridge the practical and cultural gap between your organisation and your overseas team.
Our aim is not to provide remote developers. It is to help you build long term capability.
If you’re ready to build your overseas development team? Talk to TechAnywhere today.