How to Build Your Tech Team from Scratch: The Only Guide You Need

While the modern world has readily adopted technology, has the modern workplace kept pace? For many organizations, the Covid-19 pandemic underscored the urgency of digital transformation. According to Gartner, businesses must now integrate technology into their core operations to remain viable.

In a dynamic environment where change is continuous, businesses require top-performing teams to navigate these shifts and capitalize on new opportunities.

Building such teams, however, is a complex challenge. To help you, we’ve compiled a list of the most effective tips and practices to help you answer questions about how to build a tech team.

Opportunity in Vietnam’s Booming IT Services Market

Vietnam’s IT services market is thriving, with a projected revenue of US$1.76 billion in 2023. IT outsourcing is set to reach US$0.59 billion, highlighting Vietnam’s strong global presence in software development and outsourcing. The market’s rapid evolution, with a CAGR of 12.70% from 2023 to 2028, indicates it will grow to US$3.20 billion by 2028. The average spend per employee is estimated at US$29.96 in 2023, showing significant investment in human capital.

While the U.S. leads in IT services revenue, Vietnam’s industry is rapidly growing due to technological advancements. This growth underscores the strategic advantage of building a tech team in Vietnam.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital adoption, boosting the demand for IT services in remote work, software solutions, and data security. The global IT services market is projected to reach US$1,771 billion by 2028.

Cloud technology is now a cornerstone of digital transformation, driving the need for managed IT services, especially in emerging markets like Vietnam. This trend offers companies a prime opportunity to build tech team in Vietnam, a market that is expanding and adapting to the latest innovations.

How to Build a Tech Team in Vietnam: 10 Must-Have Steps

1. Set Clear Goals and Expectations

Before forming your tech team, defining your goals and expectations is essential. These should align with your organization’s broader objectives. This alignment ensures your tech team understands the company’s vision, aiding in effective planning and task execution.

Clear goals provide direction and focus, allow time for procedure development, boost productivity, improve decision-making, and enhance motivation.

Here are eight steps for setting clear goals:

1. Identify areas where expectations are needed.
2. Co-create goals and expectations.
3. Make goals SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).
4. Ensure expectations are clear to yourself.
5. Communicate clearly, concisely, and regularly.
6. Understand your team’s expectations of you.
7. Seek buy-in and commitment.
8. Provide feedback on progress and celebrate successes.

2. Make sure the Skills and Cultural are Fit

Technical skills are crucial, but a candidate’s cultural fit is just as important. A skilled candidate who doesn’t align with your company’s culture can disrupt team dynamics and reduce productivity. Look for individuals who reflect your organization’s core values and collaborate well with the team.

Culture is key because it helps organizations respond effectively to challenges. It guides decision-making when other resources, like manuals or procedures, are not available.

Assess cultural fit during the recruiting process. Use various questionnaires during interviews to evaluate if candidates would fit well:

• Standard questions: Where do you see yourself in five years? What is your greatest strength?
• Interactive questions: What type of management style do you respond best to and why?
• Unconventional questions: What negative qualities would your friends identify in you?

Based on their answers, determine if the candidate is a good cultural fit.

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3. Focus on Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity introduces varied perspectives and problem-solving approaches, fostering innovation.

Recruiting individuals with diverse backgrounds, skills, and experiences form a well-rounded team capable of handling diverse challenges. Inclusion ensures every team member feels valued, enhancing productivity and job satisfaction.

Research by Adam Galinsky and others shows that diverse teams often produce the most creative solutions and significant paradigm shifts.

Creativity is crucial in problem-solving and areas without direct goals, such as software development. Despite strict methodologies, development is often non-linear and influenced by client vision and technical limitations. Effective teams must find alternative solutions, discover new approaches, and reinterpret issues. These skills all involve applied creativity.

4. Promote Continuous Learning

The tech industry is constantly changing, making continuous learning essential. Offering training opportunities, attending industry events, or taking online courses can assist your team in staying current with the latest technologies and methods. This investment improves performance and shows your commitment to the team’s growth.

One simple method is to provide your team with accounts on e-learning platforms like Udemy, MasterClass, and Platzi. These platforms offer courses on various subjects that can directly benefit their jobs.

Supporting employees through time allowances and tuition reimbursements for further education, such as master’s degrees, seminars, workshops, or masterclasses, can enhance their careers and benefit the organization.

5. Encourage Open Communication

Transparent and open communication is crucial for a high-performing tech team. Regular meetings and one-on-one sessions help track each team member’s progress and address any issues. Utilize collaboration tools and platforms to improve communication and keep everyone connected.

Collaboration tools are especially beneficial for companies working remotely or using a hybrid model. By the end of 2021, 79% of companies were using some form of these tools.

These tools come in various forms. Chatting platforms like Slack allow team members to converse instantly. Other examples include Zoom, Jira, Trello, and Google Workspace. These platforms enable team members to write, share documents, and add comments, notes, and edits to improve their work.

6. Promote Responsibility and Ownership

Empowering your tech team by giving them ownership of their projects fosters accountability. This leads to higher motivation and a commitment to delivering quality work. Encourage the team to make decisions and take responsibility for their actions. This also sparks innovation and boosts team morale.

Leaders can foster ownership within their teams by:

1. Explaining the “why.” When team members grasp the rationale behind decisions and objectives, they can align their personal objectives with the overall vision. This understanding increases their enthusiasm and engagement.
2. Collaborating on the “how.” Involve your team from the beginning of any planning process. Their input will motivate them to see the project through. People are more engaged when they contribute to creating solutions rather than being directed without input.
3. Supporting autonomy. Allow team members to handle tasks in their own way. This gives them a sense of control over their work and reduces the need for constant supervision. Focus on outcomes rather than processes and provide regular feedback to address any issues promptly.

7. Adopt Agile Methodologies

Agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban promote flexibility, collaboration, and efficiency. These practices manage work in small, manageable increments and encourage continuous feedback, making your tech team more responsive and effective.

Here are some ways to ensure agile success in your organization:

1. Provide flexible platforms. Use modular tools that reduce dependencies and allow for greater adaptability.
2. Become change agents. Managers should abandon outdated practices and continually learn the best ways to implement agile methods.
3. Revise the budgeting process. Adapt annual budget cycles to fit agile methodologies’ fast-paced, ever-changing nature.
4. Integrate agile into enterprise governance. Pair agile methodologies with functions such as business planning, strategic planning, portfolio planning, enterprise architecture, and budgeting.

8. Promote a Balanced Workload

Overworking your team can result in burnout and long-term productivity reductions. To prevent this, be mindful of your team’s workload and ensure it is evenly distributed. Periodic breaks and a healthy work–life balance are crucial for maintaining your tech team’s high performance.

A balanced workload is increasingly important. According to a recent Aviva study, more workers were drawn to their current role due to work-life balance (41%) than the salary (36%).

The benefits of a good work-life balance for your staff include:

• Increased productivity
• Better retention rates
• Higher employee engagement
• Greater profitability
• Enhanced brand reputation
• Improved morale
• Reduced absenteeism

9. Celebrate and Reward Performance

Recognizing and rewarding good work significantly motivates your team and enhances productivity. This recognition can range from simple verbal appreciation to more tangible rewards. Whatever the form, it lets your team know their efforts are valued and appreciated.

While rewards are often considered bonuses, all-expenses-paid trips, or stock options, recognition doesn’t have to be expensive. It can include public shout-outs, offering time off, treating the team member and their family to dinner, featuring them in company-wide communications, offering small gifts, or delivering handwritten notes. The key is not the reward itself but making your team feel valued and appreciated.

10. Cultivate a Healthy Feedback Culture

Constructive feedback is essential for continuous improvement. Foster a culture where feedback is encouraged, both from leaders and among peers. This helps team members identify areas for improvement, enhance skills, and ultimately contribute to the team’s overall performance.

There isn’t a specific formula for nurturing a healthy feedback culture, but organizations can try many methods to adapt to their needs. Here are some recommendations:

Valuing the talent’s voice is crucial. Both team members and managers should share feedback respectfully, acknowledging each other’s thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Responding to feedback is equally important; if feedback is given but no actions are implemented, it remains just a conversation. Actions should be taken when appropriate and necessary.

Creating formal feedback training is also beneficial. Giving and receiving feedback is not natural for most people, so formal training is necessary. This could include mandatory company-wide workshops and presentations, small group sessions, individual mentorship meetings, or other approaches.

Establishing core processes is vital. Leaders need to know when, how, and where to deliver feedback and how to act upon it.

Things you need to be aware of when Building a Tech Team

Challenge	Problems	Solutions
Talent Shortage	High demand for skilled professionals and competition from tech giants.	Build a strong employer brand, offer competitive salaries and benefits, use recruitment agencies, and participate in tech conferences.
Cultural Fit	Ensure new hires fit well with the team and balance diversity.	Use culture-fit interviews, involve current team members in hiring, and promote inclusion and diversity through supportive policies.
Skill Assessment	Accurately assessing technical and soft skills.	Implement coding tests and technical interviews, review portfolios, conduct behavioral interviews, and use situational judgment tests.
Onboarding	Integrating new hires into workflows and providing training.	Develop a comprehensive onboarding program, offer structured training, and assign mentors.
Retention	High turnover rates and maintaining job satisfaction.	Foster a positive work environment, provide career development opportunities, recognize contributions, conduct engagement surveys, and offer flexible working conditions.
Remote Work Challenges	Ensuring effective communication and managing time zones.	Use collaboration tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc.), establish communication protocols, set overlapping working hours, and use asynchronous communication tools.
Project Management	Managing scope creep and resource allocation.	Use Agile or Scrum methodologies, maintain a change control process, use project management tools (Jira, Trello), and regularly review and adjust resource allocation.
Technological Changes	Keeping up with evolving technologies and dealing with legacy systems.	Encourage continuous learning, allocate time for R&D, plan gradual transitions, pilot new technologies, and provide training for new systems.
Budget Constraints	Balancing the need for skilled professionals with budget limitations.	Prioritize essential roles, consider hiring junior developers, use freelance or contract developers for short-term needs, and create detailed financial plans.
Legal and Compliance Issues	Ensuring data security and navigating contracts and IP rights.	Implement robust security policies, conduct regular audits, provide training on data protection, use encryption, and secure coding practices.

Advanced Tips for Your Tech Team Building Process

Implement a Data-Driven Hiring Process

• Predictive Analytics: Use predictive analytics to identify candidates who are most likely to succeed in your organization. Analyze historical data on employee performance and retention to refine your hiring criteria.
• AI Recruiting Tools: Leverage AI-driven recruiting tools to screen resumes, conduct initial interviews, and even predict cultural fit. Tools like HireVue and Pymetrics can provide insights that go beyond human intuition.

Advanced Project Management Techniques

• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): For larger organizations, implement SAFe to manage and synchronize multiple agile teams. This framework helps in aligning all teams with the overall business goals.
• Lean Product Development: Adopt lean principles to streamline the development process, minimize waste, and accelerate delivery. Focus on delivering Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and iterating based on feedback.

Enhanced Security and Compliance Measures

• DevSecOps Integration: Integrate security practices into the DevOps pipeline (DevSecOps). Automate security testing and implement continuous monitoring to detect vulnerabilities early.
• Zero Trust Architecture: Adopt a Zero-Trust security model in which no entity inside or outside the network is trusted by default. Implement strict identity verification and least privilege access controls.

Optimize Remote Work Infrastructure

• Virtual Reality Meetings: Use VR platforms like Spatial or Horizon Workrooms for immersive remote meetings, creating a more engaging and collaborative environment.
• Advanced Monitoring Tools: Employ advanced monitoring tools to track the productivity and well-being of remote employees. Tools like ActivTrak can provide insights into work patterns and help manage remote teams effectively.

Leverage Cross-Functional Teams

• Interdisciplinary Teams: Create cross-functional teams that include developers, designers, marketers, and business analysts. This ensures diverse perspectives and holistic product development.
• Rotational Programs: Implement rotational programs where team members can work in different roles or departments. This builds a versatile team with a broader understanding of the business.

Adopt a Customer-Centric Development Approach

• Customer Feedback Loops: Implement continuous customer feedback loops using tools like UserVoice or Qualtrics. Integrate this feedback directly into the development process to ensure the product meets customer needs.
• Customer Journey Mapping: Use advanced customer journey mapping techniques to understand and anticipate customer needs. Align your development goals with these insights to enhance customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Building a high-performing tech team requires more than just hiring skilled professionals. It involves setting clear goals, ensuring cultural fit, fostering diversity, and promoting continuous learning. By leveraging advanced project management techniques, optimizing remote work infrastructure, and adopting a customer-centric approach, you can create a dynamic, innovative team ready to tackle any challenge.

If you’re looking to build tech team in Vietnam with the best consulting and IT services, don’t hesitate to contact TECHVIFY. Our experts are ready to help you achieve your organizational goals and drive your business forward. Reach out to us today and let’s see how we can transform your tech team into a powerhouse of innovation and productivity.