Adaptability is the capacity to react appropriately to changing circumstances. If you have adaptability skills, you can modify your attitude or adjust your behavior to different situations and different people. 

Adaptability Skills and Adaptability as a Trait

If you include adaptability as a soft skill on our resume, you show that you can embrace innovation, quickly respond to industry trends, and handle destabilizing scenarios with confidence. Certain people have an inherent ability to be more adaptable; they were lucky to be born with this trait. Change comes naturally to them. 

For example, managing an office day-to-day requires a highly flexible attitude. There is no way to handle all the curveballs an office environment throws at you successfully if you aren’t willing to shift your approach or deal with people in resourceful ways.

However, there is no need to panic if you lack this virtue: you can train your adaptability skills. Before we dig deeper into how to become more conformable, let’s find out more about the importance of adaptability skills in the workplace. 

Why is Adaptability an Important Skill?

Adaptability is a critical strength for business leadership. It is also crucial for managing high-performing teams. 

When hiring new employees, recruiters are interested in adaptability as a competency. To rank high on the adaptability competency, you need to show that you can reach your goals through various trajectories. You don’t quit when facing obstacles; you innovate to circumvent them and try a new approach. 

Hopefully, it is more apparent now how important it is to develop your adaptability skills to thrive in the rocky world of running a digital business. 

Are you interested in broadening your leadership skills? Read an inspiring story about successfully managing remote agile teams.

An Example of Adaptability Competency

To be adaptable is desirable because it shows a richness of character and an evolving mindset. Such a mental attitude will help you:

• Easily switch between tasks.
• Handle multiple demands thrown at you.
• Find the right people for the right job.
• Work in an office, from home, or when traveling the world.
• Maintain energy and pace when things get rough.

Therefore, developing adaptability starts with a mindset shift. Openness to new ideas and changing strategies are two essential elements of an adaptable character. 

It is next to impossible to work ardently unless you gather and incorporate feedback from the environment. Handling the short feedback loops in agile methodology is a prime example of adaptability competency. In an agile team, projects will fail unless you are highly attuned to the environment and you act promptly upon every stakeholders’ feedback.    

How to Demonstrate Adaptability in the Workplace?

To show that you are open to change, you have to handle a certain level of discomfort. When things run smoothly, it is easy to be a great team player and even a better leader. But when it’s not business as usual, your adaptability skills must shine. Having an open mindset won’t be enough. You’ll have to demonstrate that you possess adaptability skills through your behavior.

Examples of behavioral indicators that show you are an adaptable employee include:  

• Find ways to adopt changes that work rather than focusing on changes that fail.
• Implement new ways of working quickly and easily.
• Make suggestions about how to implement change.
• Adjust strategy to changes in the situation.
• Present willingness to learn new methods, techniques, and procedures.
• Prioritize according to the needs of the case.
• Retain a can-do attitude when facing setbacks.

If you find yourself high on the scale of each of these actions, you are most likely an adaptable person. However, experience shows that you can never be too prepared – everything we do has to do with “life”. Excellent adaptability in the workplace will help you set an example for your team. Furthermore, it will allow you to navigate across shifting career priorities and change is bound to happen. 

How to Become Adaptable at Work

Adaptability skills incorporate learning and taking risks. In other words, you have to be ready to frequently leave your comfort zone. Here are five ways to help you become more adaptable in life and at work:

1. Develop in interdisciplinary areas. 

Lifelong learning is nothing new. In a technologically disruptive world, there is no other way to grow in business. However, learning additional skills that go out of your usual training scope is a bonus. For example, a recruiter can get an extra perk on your resume if they can show they are highly skilled in technical recruitment and know how to assemble a software development team. 

Another example is software specializations. With so many new software development tools on the market, becoming an expert on Shopify, for example, will help you reach out to hundreds of potential new clients who are looking for a lucrative web platform.

Have an exciting new idea about selling online? Let us help you create your dream team and generate substantial revenue with e-commerce.

2. Become a risk-taker.

It is impossible to make any kind of progress without taking risks. Think about it: if you remain stuck in the same place, you will be comfortable. But at the same time, you won’t grow. Forcing yourself to take risks is among the most desired adaptability skills you can have because risks create new opportunities. Creating new opportunities, such as identifying potential in emerging trends, is the essence of business growth. 

3. Build resilience.

Sometimes, new situations and new people will inevitably test you. Experimenting, learning, and taking risks may end up in rejection and failure. Therefore, one of the vital adaptability skills you can have is the capacity to quickly bounce back from adverse outcomes. 

To deal with disappointment and failure, you need to:

• Develop your coping skills via emotional self-regulation. Simply put, welcome your emotions.
• Practice healthy habits to deal with stress. This means no late-night pizza and burgers!
• Accept responsibility for the wrong actions that led to the failure. Learn the lesson — what went wrong? How could you have overturned the outcome?
• Get inspired by famous failure stories. Even Jeff Bezos and Ariana Huffington had it hard at specific points in their careers.
• Create a plan for moving forward. Adaptability at its best showcases at the moment you choose a new path to move on from failed projects.   

Furthermore, by making time in your daily schedules, you can strengthen adaptability through these practices to impress your clients.

4. Accept that adaptability is a team effort.

We don’t live in a vacuum. Even if you work by yourself at home, you are still a part of an office. Your clients and teammates play a crucial role in how adaptable you become under trying circumstances. Clients will shift priorities. People will leave. Understand what your part is within the team and take accountability for your actions. You can’t change everyone else. However, you can change yourself.

In fact, the people you surround yourself with will be the greatest challenge to your adaptability since they come from very different places. Understanding the difference between what you can (your thoughts and actions) and what you can not control (other people’s thoughts and actions) is crucial to becoming a great leader and an inspiring colleague.

Are you looking to rewrite your business rulebook with new talent? We can help you build a winning team for your next project. 

5. Deliberately practice adaptability skills.

You can always undertake formal adaptability training. But short courses are usually limited in their effectiveness and more appropriate for hard skills. Soft skills often require deliberate practice.

You can tweak your adaptability with exercises, including individual and team exercises with the following activities:

1. Analyze and share insights about the difference in perspective and opinions about situations.
2. Acknowledge the possibility of other perspectives and ask questions to better understand the difference.
3. Think about your ingrained habits. Do you always go out to the same place? Do you use the same project management apps? Are you stuck in the same process workflow?
4. Question the expectations you have from people. Often, things do not turn out as expected. Distinguish between expectations and clearly defined project outcomes. Increase clarity by being bold and transparent in communication.
5. Write down an honest list of your own limiting beliefs and attitudes set in stone. How your fixed mindset limits your adaptability skills?

As long as you are willing to work on these limitations, you won’t lack opportunities in your career and business. By reflecting on a stale mindset, changing actions, and modifying courses, you are a visible representation of adaptability skills in the workplace. 

Adaptable employees make flexibility work like a charm and can handle challenges that arise out of the blue. If you want a dedicated team for your business, contact us today.

The post How to Train Your Adaptability Skills and Create New Opportunities appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Two weeks ago we decided to address an ongoing issue in the IT community. The issue is with the remote agile teams. Many experts on the subject would say that the term “remote agile teams” is a bit contradictory, as the Agile Methodology was created for teams that share the same physical space. Therefore, can we make Agile work in the new normal? Yes, we can. By providing dedicated teams for our clients, commonly known as staff augmentation. We have more than ten years of experience in shaping remote agile teams. Furthermore, we asked our colleague Maja Dimitrovska, who is an important part of the Bookmark team, how she succeeds on a daily basis with the aforementioned issue. 

As mentioned, these are strange and challenging times to lead agile teams. Can you tell us your secret? How do you manage to keep track of everybody’s tasks on Bookmark?

We are often told to confront unexpected changes, that we need to be agile and resilient. This is most accurate, as we try to respond to the changes brought by the coronavirus pandemic. As our world turns upside down, most companies are reacting rather than responding. In times like these, business agility provides stability, a way to manage change and respond productively. 

Agile is a framework that approves professionals and companies through developing high performing teams. In an Agile environment, changes are welcome; the client is the epicenter of the work and development is aligned with business needs. Company owners need to work on “enabling the best in their employees, rather than commanding it from them”. Leaders should empower employees to be self-organized.  

Remote working entails many challenges, one of which is knowing how to always be connected with other colleagues on your team, how to maintain an overall team culture, morale and motivation, how to run engaging meetings, how to track and communicate progress within the team, how to exchange ideas and share experiences (good and bad) and, last but not least, how to help the team focus on priorities. By communicating a clear vision, encouraging frequent communication and providing clear boundaries, team members feel better connected and remain focused and productive.

No one said that leading remote agile teams was going to be easy, and just like many other leaders faced with the sudden change to virtual team environments, we are also reorganizing our activities and the way we work. Some of our activities during these challenging times are:

• Following the team’s principles
• Clear team delegation and prioritization of tasks
• Communication, communication, communication
• Daily standups with the team via collaboration tools, such as Slack or Zoom
• Random chats (one-on-one) and co-working tools (Trello, Jira)
• Short-term goals
• Ensuring qualitative results

Even though the working environment has changed, the quality and quantity of our deliverables have not. Frequently sharing our achievements with the team and further improving are our regular activities.

During this crisis, leaders need to learn new ways to care for their people. Connect with them to detect unforeseen issues, respect and value team skills, personal needs and differences, encourage them to do their work remotely with less supervision. This is the beginning of a new way of leading.

According to you, what are the benefits of using Trello for project management in an agile environment?

Task management is the core and soul of every project. First, we divide the project into smaller pieces, then decide what needs to get done and which team member to do it. Trello excels at task management and it is considered as one of the platforms that employees can learn the quickest. Tasks and projects are systematized by using a three-part hierarchy: Boards, Lists, and Cards. You can create and organize these elements in any way you want. By assigning cards to specific users, due dates and files. Trello is a fantastic Scrum and Agile solution. It’s easy to use and it works like a traditional whiteboard, in digital form. 

Boards: The flexibility of Trello boards is perfectly aligned with the Scrum framework; it gives you full visibility into project stages, roles, deadlines and assignments. After you sign up on Trello, you can create multiple boards within your personal or team workspace.

Lists: Boards contain lists, which are grouped tasks. You can choose to rename or reorder any of the lists to match your team’s current needs for the project you are working on.

Cards: The same goes for cards. You can also move the cards from one list to another with just one click. Each card may contain a description, a checklist with subtasks, additional attachments, assignees, due dates and labels. Furthermore, team members can discuss aspects of the task by commenting. Every new person added to one of the cards gets access to previous discussions.

Power-ups: You can use Trello’s power-ups to connect to the card applications like Slack, Github, Jira, Google Drive, and many more. There are many items on the list of power-ups, and this only guarantees that Trello is a tool that easily integrates into one’s workflow.

Notifications: You will never miss important developments from the tasks that you are included in; you will be updated regularly by receiving a notification.

These capabilities make Trello great in terms of flexibility and how intuitive it is to use. Trello is distinct from other tools, thanks to its simplicity. Trello project management makes a great tool, whether you need to organize a whole team’s work or just your activities.

What other project management software do you prefer?

Project management software tools have become widely popular in recent years; there are plenty of options to choose from. Some of those tools are free to use with limited features, while others with advanced copy have more functions. Some require payment after a few days of the trial period. Choosing which tool to use can be quite challenging and also engaging.

Whether you want to find a simple way to organize tasks or need a powerful, enterprise-grade system, there is a PM tool for everyone. The project management software helps project managers and teams to collaborate and meet goals on time while managing resources and costs. Functions may include task distribution, time tracking, budgeting, resource planning, team collaboration, and many more.

Choosing the right approach for managing a project is crucial for successful project delivery. The way that managers manage work is defined by techniques that you use, tools that they use, and project scope activities on which they are working.

The process of leading Agile teams can be challenging at times because there are countless moving parts and evolving processes to manage. However, it is especially difficult if you do not have the right software behind you. Project managers should choose a project management tool that best suits their management style. Choosing the right tool for managing the Agile development team has not always been an easy decision. Certain factors must be evaluated as you’re assessing/shopping for different tools:

• Agile Framework Preferences
• Collaboration Features
• Team Size
• Project Type
• Reporting
• Usability

Some of the best agile project management tools available on the market are Trello, Jira, Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Smart sheet, etc. I have worked with different project tools during the past years and I can say that when choosing the right tool, you need to make sure that the options that the toll provides are the best fit for your team and future project plans.

Currently, we are using Trello, but we are open and exploring possible solutions on the market. To organize and achieve better integration, alignment with other company teams, and cover future planned project activities, we are also considering starting using Jira. Jira is a platform that allows teams to handle issues throughout the life cycle of the problem. Jira can be tailored to fit different organizational structures and is highly customizable. Jira also works great for smaller teams, as well as larger ones. The reasons why we are considering to switch to Jira are the following main features:

• Transparency 
• Flexibility
• User Experience
• Commenting
• Cost management
• Categorization
• Custom Workflow
• Knowledge management
• Integrations

In the end, no matter which project management solution you are going for, agile tools are sure to improve the way you streamline your workflow and team productivity.

In the end, quick question (that provokes a long answer): Kanban or Scrum? Or maybe Scrumban?

Agile is an enormous umbrella term that covers several different approaches, two of which are Scrum and Kanban. Scrum and Kanban apply agile principles in their own way to empower effective delivery cycles. Scrumban is a term for a hybrid approach making use of both Scrum and Kanban principles.

Agile is all about experimentation. Scrum, Kanban or Scrumban are not competitors; they can be experiments every team should run to find their best fit. The goal of using an agile approach is to deliver more value for the business in the quickest way possible. I think it is always a good thing to experiment and implement new processes that will enhance the way the team works and how project activities are organized.

From my experience with managing teams, I would say that Scrum is great for any team that can work on incremental delivery: a product, reporting, hardware, etc. Out of the three methodologies, Scrum is probably the hardest to adopt and the most complex and strict methodology. Scrum sprints can set clear goals and deadlines, thus giving full-control to the project manager. The Scrum framework is appropriate for experienced teams working on a product or a project which is longer than a year.

Kanban gives more freedom at the start. It is the most simple and most comfortable to adopt the method. It uses a Kanban board on which it visualizes the work and the work process, ensuring that everyone in the team is on the same page. It also reveals who are the bottlenecks in the workflow without losing its flexibility in production. Kanban is a good fit for supporting and maintaining teams. I love Kanban’s way of thinking to stop starting and start finishing.

Our team is using Scrumban. It combines the benefits of both Scrum and Kanban methodologies by using Kanban’s visualization and Scrum’s systematization while not introducing extra complexity. Scrumban is flexible in production and functions pretty good in large projects. It allows teams to have the agility of Scrum and the simplicity of Kanban while requiring no role updates.

Scrumban is a good fit for smaller teams, startups and loyal teams bringing more efficiency and freedom, teams who manage projects and work alongside keeping the business operational. Like in the process of choosing the right tool to manage the project team activities, the same approach should be used for adopting new agile methods or implementing changes in current that are used. Research each agile method, rescan the processes and bottlenecks in the team activities and then decide what you will implement as a new process for the Team. Strategies need to be revised and will be a matter of change until the best fit for the team is defined.

Discover why many Canadian and USA companies prefer hiring remote teams from Serbia and Macedonia. Tell us your needs and we will help you build an agile remote team. Arrange a free consultation today and we will get you started.

The post Remote Agile Teams Management – Success Story appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Rumble has established itself as an online resort for over 350,000 independent content creators that upload videos to their site. It allows them to exchange their video content with publishers, thus creating a specific marketplace that connects producers with distributors who publish the content on other video platforms simultaneously. Especially now, when some content creators find YouTube discriminating, the Rumble video platform has proven to be welcoming and has given the freedom to its users to feel like they can share their personal opinions with the public. And more importantly, they will not be hidden and buried in search results. 

Behind every successful brand stands a great leader and a well-organized, dedicated team. Read on to discover more about what makes Rumble video a more appealing option than YouTube and how they leverage the services of Cosmic Development to achieve their goals.

Rumble vs. YouTube

Ever since YouTube started hiding specific videos from their search results, people began looking for a new option that will allow them to publish their videos without being concealed from the YouTube audience. At this point emerged Rumble – the best video management system – which allows everyone to create and upload video content and have it rank in search results, unlike YouTube, which buries certain videos in their search results. According to an article in the Verge: “…creators often feel abandoned and confused about why their videos are buried in search results, don’t appear on the trending page, or are being quietly demonetized.”

With recent events proving that YouTube is a discriminating platform towards certain people, Rumble has decided to show equal treatment to all content creators on their platform. If you take a quick look at Rumble’s Twitter profile, you will notice many people opting for Rumble when it comes to publishing videos, thus turning their backs to YouTube. One of them is the conservative radio host Dan Bongino who has gotten an equity stake in Rumble – a platform that protects free speech. 

In an exclusive interview for the Washington Examiner, Bongino shared his search journey for a new video platform where his “…views won’t be discriminated against.” And luckily for him, he came across Rumble. Although Bongino has 600 thousand subscribers on YouTube, he says that 80 percent of The Dan Bongino Show daily episodes have been demonetized. “I’m sick of it, and I wanted to do something about it.” Since September 2020, he started uploading The Dan Bongino Show – the 12th most popular podcast on Apple podcasts – to Rumble before posting it to his YouTube channel.

Who else joined Rumble recently? 

The Rumble Media Player

Rumble offers you 4K video hosting over the fastest media player on the market, tracking your success, and assessing your analytics in real-time. Rumble’s video player provides you with the opportunity to integrate your advertisements, to manage multiple platforms, and to monetize over one million video assets. Moreover, you will have your own Dedicated Account Manager to guide you through the process. You will also be able to distribute the content you create to Amazon and Roku. And do not worry: you will have no contracts and no hidden fees. 

Entrepreneur listed Rumble as one of the Four Video Platforms Attempting to Challenge YouTube’s Dominance and published an article stating that: “Rumble also allows creators, brands and distributors the ability to custom-brand the 4k video player, adding their own logo and styling and offering the ability to turn to choose whether or not ads will be shown on the video, or who’s ads will be shown. For publishers and brands looking to adopt Rumble as their video management system or video player, one of the major advantages is their player speed; benchmarking better than all the competition, which ultimately leads to more streams and revenue for both publishers and creators.”

For more information about Rumble’s Media Player, please look at their website, where you will discover the exact features and benefits compared to other players.

Rumble’s Most Significant Accomplishments

Throughout the years, Rumble has done nothing less than achieve new goals and become better in their industry. The Rumble journey began back in 2008, and in these past 12 years, they managed to accomplish many goals and surpass their company’s expectations. We decided to list some of their most significant accomplishments:

• 2015: The Rumble player got the fastest player rating on Google Developer Insights
• 2016: ComScore ranked Rumble as a Top 50 Video Site
• 2017: Alexa ranked Rumble a Top 100 Website
• 2018: Quantcast ranked Rumble a Top 10 Mobile Site, and Deloitte proclaimed Rumble as the 10th fastest growing technology company in Canada and the 75th in the United States
• 2019: The Rumble Viral YouTube channel surpassed one million subscribers. Rumble received the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 50 award and got in the 18th position with 955 percent revenue growth from 2015 to 2018. Rumble also received an award from The Globe and Mail for being one of Canada’s Top Growing Companies, in the revenue bracket of $10M-$25M.

We can not wait to see what award will Rumble win next. It is up to us to continue contributing to their success and the awards will come on their own. To those of you who want your products or services to mark similar accomplishments to those of Rumble – we are here to help. Reach out today and we will address your unique needs in no time. 

Our Dedicated Team Stands Behind Rumble’s Success

The significance of having a great team that brings success to your brand is best described with the words of Rumble’s Founder and CEO – Chris Pavlovski: “Having a dedicated team allows us to deliver added value and continuously innovate how we monetize your content so you can make the most with Rumble.” Chris had an idea to offer a superior video technology platform that will maximize the creators’ earnings while uncovering the video content’s genuine value. In order to achieve the development of that platform, Chris entrusted us with assembling a dedicated team for his brand. 

Meet the team that makes Rumble possible

We can proudly say that we have employees who work together and contribute to developing Rumble into a better version, even though they are located in different cities in the world. The leadership team is situated in Toronto, while the other employees are from all over the world. Our wide range of employees who work for Rumble, from software engineers to content editors and video editors, have converted the platform into an online space where millions of people get together on a worldwide level.

Discover why many Canadian and USA companies prefer outsourcing their IT needs to Serbia and Macedonia. Tell us your needs and we will help you build a winning team, just like we did for Rumble. Arrange a free consultation today and we will get you started.

Sources:

• corp.rumble.com/
• corp.rumble.com/video-player-content.html
• rumbleplayer.com/
• rumble.com/team/
• rumble.com/our-apps/
• story.rumble.com/rumble-ranked-18th-fastest-growing-technology-company/
• entrepreneur.com/article/340272
• washingtonexaminer.com/news/exclusive-fed-up-with-youtube-crushing-conservative-voices-dan-bongino-acquires-part-ownership-of-video-sharing-competitor
• theverge.com/2019/4/5/18287318/youtube-logan-paul-pewdiepie-demonetization-adpocalypse-premium-influencers-creators

The post Why Many Choose Rumble Over YouTube appeared first on Cosmic Development.

As we are walking in the last quarter of the notorious 2020, we can state one thing for sure: Remote work and distributed teams are here to stay. However, companies can be skeptical about moving their agile processes online when it comes to working remotely. At first glance, why wouldn’t they be? Especially having in mind that Agile was initially intended for teams that are physically located together in the same workspace. Even according to the 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto: “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation“––the first agile teams were intended to work together physically.

Some challenges arise for distributed software teams:

• Synchronizing teams in different time zones
• Building rapport without face-to-face contact
• Collaboration between different cultures
• Coordinating stand-ups and meetings considering that team members are online at the same time for a limited amount of time

These are genuine problems, but they are far from unsolvable. With almost ten years of experience in staff augmentation and software development services, we can share some insights and strategies to help you narrow the gap between working on-premises and remotely.

Structure Your Teams

Think of your team from a software engineer’s point of view: quality software architecture needs modular design, so design your software accordingly. The same goes for building teams. Every team should be able to develop a single fraction of the project, and by that, successfully reduce the dependence between your teams in different time zones or locations. You will actually make teams autonomous parts of your project or company. When a project requires team members to take part from different locations, they can focus solely on their integration points and APIs.

Code reviews are considered as an important part of the development process for remote teams. Since your people are working at different times, sharing knowledge of the code between teams makes maintenance easier.

Building and Maintaining Rapport

Agile teams need to build solid rapport between team members. This brings trust, reduces misunderstanding, makes self-organization easier, and builds morale and motivation. Take time, as much as possible, to get to know everyone within your distributed teams. A personal touch is a must. Creating strong rapport will lead to smoother communication between teams, which in turn leads to better workflows.

After all, who said that face-to-face meetings have to be offline? Especially these days, when Zoom and Google Hangouts have become our new-normal offices, we encourage using them in order to minimize the gap between distributed agile teams. At Cosmic Development, we are avoiding strictly scheduled Hangouts meetings for intra-team communication. Instead, we strive to create a culture of using video chats even for spontaneous informal conversations and ad-hoc meetings. Needless to say, instant-messaging tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams are very helpful in solving small issues or in simply keeping in touch. 

To help address some remote communication challenges within the team, you need to stimulate team members to have one-on-one video sessions whenever possible. These should not be formal, but they still need to be focused on work and oriented around knowledge sharing in a casual way.

Structuring a United Development Culture

Here are the four simple rules our teams follow in order to make remote work easier:

1. Overcommunicate decisions and procedures
2. Minimize the onboarding friction
3. Clearly define terminology
4. Create reporting guidelines 

Now, let us discuss each of them more thoroughly:

1. Overcommunicate Decisions and Procedures

When members of a distributed agile team make decisions, they need to communicate those decisions thoroughly. That sounds a bit obvious, but it is very easy to forget. Important decisions are often made in informal conversations; they are brainstormed between individuals or discussed spontaneously on calls between individuals. In contrast to this, small decisions are often dismissed as unimportant, especially if we focus on another part of the conversation. 

When working in a remote culture, everything, even the minute details, need to be communicated until the whole team starts moving in the same flow.

It is easy to lose meaning or essential information if you announce important decisions via email. Everyone in your dispersed teams needs to understand the decisions, the reasons behind each decision, and how they will be implemented. Team members that are working on outdated information can lead to major setbacks, hitting a blockade, and then re-communicating the whole process costs the team more time than accuracy sharing information in the first place.

2. Minimize the Onboarding Friction

You can tame the “first-day-friction” by utilizing a good onboarding procedure. Remote team members should feel at home right off the bat, which helps build cohesion between team members of different cultures. 

3. Clearly Define Terminology

While working with remote teams, clear standards around simple terminology like “complete” and “done” help manage expectations and ease communication. A clear definition of task completion eliminates ambivalence in work. For example, when sending a release that involves work from multiple teams, make sure to make it clear what “complete” means in this particular context: (a) the code needs to be written, (b) pull request created, (c) code needs to be reviewed and tested, (d) and finally integrated into the main codebase.

4. Create Guidelines for Reporting

Distributing the development process means that not everyone is online and ready for work when problems come up. We recommend setting systems and guidelines for troubleshooting, but reports and issue tracking. You will not believe how much easier such systems and guidelines make it for anyone on the team to track down and resolve issues. Code reviews and automated tests should be part of this process as it enables the remote team to make changes and validate them so they will not have any unexpected side effects.

Maximize the Mutual Online Time

The golden hours for remote agile teams are when most of the team members are online at the same time. This is the perfect time for stand-ups, coordination meetings, or one-on-one calls.

For teams that work in different time zones, a stand-up meeting is an excellent opportunity to share their issues, obstacles, or decisions. Having the stand-ups via video calls makes it easy to coordinate and catch-up with the flow, so everyone is up and running as soon as the meeting is done.

Instruct the project manager to closely monitor the entire team’s engagement during the stand-up. If there is an undue tension, or communication is becoming unfocused and counter-productive, your team members will quickly disengage.

Stand-ups do not have to be strictly daily meetings. You can have them a few times per week and use the other days for informal communication. Thus, a stand-up does not have to be just a morning routine, but you can organize it at the most convenient time for everyone that forms part of your remote agile teams. 

We all need to adapt and learn how to work within remote teams, communicate efficiently, and grow a cohesive culture. Many large companies have successfully implemented distributed agile workflows long before the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to cut costs and work more efficiently. On the other hand, remote work is very easy to implement for small teams that have previously worked together in a common office. Such teams can significantly benefit from the advantages of working remotely.

Stay tuned for Part Two, where we will talk to Bookmark‘s Project Manager about her hands-on experience with managing a remote team.

Sources:

• agilemanifesto.org/
• agilealliance.org/resources/experience-reports/remotely-agile/
• blog.stormid.com/distributed-agile-working/

The post Remote Work and Agile Teams are Here to Stay appeared first on Cosmic Development.

The stronger the team, the stronger the business, and it all starts with effective project management.

Programmers are notoriously difficult to seek out, screen, and onboard. They are artists; they are ambitious. Regardless of whether you have got a small team of programmers or a rapidly-expanding one, it is very likely that you will encounter situations that wreak havoc on employee happiness and morale. Many team managers within the tech industry still struggle to manage their teams of programmers. Truth be told, management does not come easily. Continue reading the article below for pointers, which will ensure that your team of programmers performs well and stays on track in the future. 

Nowadays, project management is in high demand in various industries. Why? Organizations today face fierce competition, and they have to combat global challenges. Moreover, they must answer internal/external issues without any delay. In response to those challenges, organizations need a structured approach to plan, organize, control, and manage their resources (and internal capabilities) so that they can deliver timely results.

How to Implement an Effective Project Management

Project management can be better explained as “the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and shutting a team’s work to realize specific goals and meet specific success criteria.” Project managers need to be at a particular level of analytical and organizational skills so as to be effective in their roles. However, the project manager’s job does not end with completing project scope and budget documents. At the core of their work lies their ability to understand individuals and their management skills that direct the employees toward the simplest results. For this reason, possessing an efficient array of “soft skills” are often equally as important as possessing the hard skills that are typically related to the discipline.

Project management knowledge draws on ten areas:

• Communications
• Costs
• Human resources
• Procurement
• Quality of deliverables
• Business requirements
• Risks
• Schedules
• Project scope
• Stakeholders

The Importance of Time Management

In the extent of project management, time management is about using wisely the quantity of the time allocated to a project in order to satisfy expected deliverables and conclude all work before the project completion date. It requires project managers to ensure that their teams are organized, productive, and prompt at all times. This strategy is something that all project managers need to get comfortable with.

From a team’s perspective, having a transparent understanding of the varied individuals that structure the group – and their skill sets – can go an extended way in properly and efficiently assigning tasks. During this same regard, it is essential for a project manager to review which team member is liable for which task during a project and to avoid confusion and missed deadlines.

The best method for maintaining the stakeholders’ timeliness is to seek out ways to keep them engaged with the project. Sending weekly or monthly emails with a summary of the tasks accomplished during that period is one such approach that makes the tasks remain at the top of the mind. When project managers are ready to communicate this example clearly and concisely to the customer, while also finding out how to adapt their approach counting on the stakeholders’ previous reactions to high-stress situations, they are far more likely to realize effective results.

Critical Steps for Maintaining a Meeting Efficient

Another aspect of the project management strategy is to know how to keep a meeting efficient. Project managers should learn how to rely on work breakdown structures during the design phase of their projects so as to attenuate wasted time when it involves completing deliverables. Moreover, they will help team members to alleviate the strain that accompanies large-scale deliverables.

Suppose a project manager determines that an in-person meeting remains the simplest route for a particular team or group, on the opposite hand. In that case, it is important that managers follow a couple of critical steps for keeping the meetings efficient:

1. Take time to determine an agenda before the meeting of precisely what must be addressed. 

Determining an agenda before the meeting may help in eliminating the time-wasters from the session. Usual time-wasters in a meeting are segue questions, updates that are not on topic, or one-on-one conversations between two team members that could be completed outside of the larger meeting. Moreover, having a plan for the meeting may also help get over everything that must be addressed in time.

2. Make sure that the rationale everyone within the meeting has been included is clear.

Project managers need to make meeting attendees understand that they are all included in the meeting. If that is not the case, project managers should consider removing some of the people from the list of attendees, thus saving the group, as well as the individual, from wasting their time.

3. Entitle someone to take notes and supply action items for the next team meeting. 

At the end of a meeting, the attendees need to know what has been accomplished already, so having someone take notes from the meeting is very important. This may ensure that the employees are on an equivalent page about what has been accomplished already. Still, they will also know what they personally must achieve before the subsequent meeting. This action can ensure that future meetings will always be productive down the road.

The Benefits of Program Management in Organizations

So far, we have discussed the advantages at an organizational level and just a few of the ways how project management can help to enhance your entire business. But what about individual projects? What about the benefits that come from program management? What about situations when things get down sometimes, and with a simple addition of unnecessary bureaucracy in a company, employees may be left with an idea but with no room for innovation?

When organizations get to introduce project management, they can follow three important steps. They need to identify the program, develop different approaches, find the most convenient one, and finally identify an appropriate program manager.

Better project planning = better projects

Benefits of Implementing Program Management

Program management may be a crucial link between strategic services portfolios in a corporation and its component projects. By defining a program, there are significant advantages supporting an objective of subdividing component projects, then undertaking individual projects. Overall, program management strengthens the alignment towards organizational business strategy, ensures better control, and focuses on benefits realization. There are the four most important benefits of implementing program management in a company:

• Provides a Comprehensive View
• Works towards Organizational Benefits
• Formalizes Procedures
• Saves Costs

Is your project set for success? 

The inspiration for a successful program is born long before the project even starts. Therefore, project managers must know how to predict risks, support planned governance, but most importantly, how to manage processes, controls, and suppliers. Avoiding or taking shortcuts within the crucial pre-planning and formation areas can significantly impact project success. This impact may take the shape of missed deadlines, budget overruns, reduced benefits, and burned-out teams. Therefore, managers are mandated to learn how to reduce project failure rates and how to shorten costs. 

Reducing project failure rates

Without this vital step, a project team can miss crucial details, deadlines, and eventually deliverables. The two most important things that a company must know are deciding where to spend our energy and what to deliver first. What is most vital for the customer? Which features can have an immediate impact on the company’s revenues? These are only the first questions that managers need to answer in order to reduce the possibility of project failure. 

Managers also have to frequently discuss with developers about what are the company’s priorities. However, technical priorities are essential too: they can not always be ignored to think only about business priorities, because doing so is going to affect the business and the delivery of the software. Therefore, managers must understand that both business priorities and technical priorities must be considered when deciding on the next step they will work on.

It is indisputable that developers must work in cohesion with the project managers all the time. If you want to get a project manager that will take into consideration all the qualities mentioned above, contact us today and let our experts lead your team of developers.

Sources:

• proofhub.com/articles/why-is-project-management-important
• thedigitalprojectmanager.com/why-is-project-management-important/
• ntaskmanager.com/blog/why-is-project-management-important-for-an-organization/
• plan.io/blog/project-management-skills/

The post Project Management as a Crucial Aspect of Programming appeared first on Cosmic Development.

When hiring a web developer, you need to find the most suitable candidate with strong technical experience. However, it is also very important that the web developer you want to hire possesses a set of basic soft skills. Acquiring a web developer on your team, who has not only the technical abilities to get the work done but is an ongoing person with excellent communication skills, is the key that might bring success to your business. 

During a time when many IT companies have the “work from home” policy, abilities like clear and tactful communication with colleagues within or outside of the department who are also remote can determine whether someone fits for the job position.

Below you can find several questions that you can ask your candidate when hiring a web developer at a job interview:

1. Ask the candidates to explain to you a project they have worked on and the approach they took from start to finish.

Interview questions for a web developer’s position will help you learn more about the candidates’ work mindset — how they are gathering requirements, solving problems, managing user feedback, handling QA, and collaborating in a team setting. This way, you can also see whether they pay close attention to user experience.

2. Do some roleplay. Pretend you are a tech novice and ask the candidates to explain something in plain English.

Your candidate will likely work closely with other departments of your company. In other words, they will need to communicate effectively with their colleagues who are not tech-savvy, such as colleagues from marketing, sales, corporate communications, and other company areas. Ask the candidate to describe a topic all web developers should be familiar with, and look for their ability to communicate in non-tech terms. Some concepts to choose from are: Microservice architecture, AWS/Azure, Responsive design, MVC model, APIs, etc.

It would be of great help if you ask them to compare web development-related terms, for instance, to make a distinction between UI and UX or between front-end and back-end, depending on the candidate experience.

3. Ask if they have ever given a presentation.

The web developer you hire will play an important role in your company, so public speaking is a must-have skill. You will want to hire someone who feels comfortable when giving a presentation. And bonus points will definitely go to those who have spoken in front of large non-tech groups. After the presentation, ask them some follow up questions on how they gathered and organized information, and what they did to keep their audience’s attention. 

4. Ask them to name a website or app that annoys them and let them describe what was wrong with it.

Here is how to get an insight into your candidate’s awareness of current issues in web development, as well as their problem-solving abilities. We consider the right answer to be the one where they do more than just gripe about someone else’s work. They also need to offer real solutions to practical issues.

5. Find out what they do when an application stops working.

Problem-solving is at the very core of web development, so pay attention to how candidates talk about fixing things that go awry. Do they prefer to break down the situation and analyze potential causes? Are they able to ask for help when needed, and do they know where to find answers? How do they respond if their initial idea for a solution does not work out? 

6. Make them tell you about a time they have had to respond to negative feedback.

Your candidate will have to deal with many comments from beta testers and actual users of your product. The web developer you are looking for needs to know how to take that feedback, analyze it, and turn it into an action step. Listen to them and, if needed, ask them how they would walk through the issue and arrive at a conclusion.

7. Ask if they have ever been blamed for something that was not their fault.

This is a very challenging question. However, it is a good way of catching the candidate’s attitude towards teamwork. If your candidate is quick to throw a team member under the bus, that is a red alert. You need to hire a diplomatic person who does not get frustrated quickly and concentrates on working toward a solution.

8. Find out what was the biggest challenge of working on the front end of an application.

Your candidate would have worked closely with the rest of the development team. Find out if they understand how data is structured, what functions are available, how APIs are called, and how web services are configured. The chosen candidates should be capable of discussing the entire development lifecycle. They also need to show an understanding of where do they fit in. These inquiries will help you find out if you are talking to a web developer or a web designer who has a little Java knowledge.

9. Ask them to tell you about the projects they are working on (or have worked on) in their spare time.

Technology is moving fast. Therefore, when hiring a web developer, you need to be aware that you are looking for someone who invests some of their spare time in growing their skills and staying on top of current trends. Your candidate should be able to discuss their personal projects (past or present), and if possible, show you some of their work.

10. Ask what APIs have they worked with.

All applicants should have worked with APIs, at least for well-known commercial services, like those offered by Twitter, Slack, Dropbox, and the APIs suite that Google offers. The candidate you choose to join your team should demonstrate knowledge on API functions and should know how to integrate results into their design. Bonus points would go for the candidate that has helped to develop and document their own APIs. They need to be able to talk about how they worked with the development team to create secure and useful interfaces.

11. Find out what do they think will be the biggest trends in future web development.

This is an excellent open-ended topic you can begin when hiring a web developer. Your candidate may talk about technologies like Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages technology, Motion UI, AI-powered customer service chatbots, voice search, emerging cybersecurity threats, or advanced analytics techniques. Notice what they focus on and ask them about their genuine opinion on how this will improve, for example, user experience, what kind of challenges this technology brings, and how they would integrate the latest technology with their current work. By doing so, you can also find out whether they have the basic five personality traits that every web developer must possess.

12. Try and discover their SQL skills.

Maybe the web developer you currently need in your team does not interact directly with a database, but they must understand how data is structured. Any practical SQL experience, such as having worked as a database administrator, is highly valuable. 

13. Ask them what the most significant difference between developing for mobile and desktop is.

As you know, the most significant portion of your users browse on mobile, but the majority of the development work happens on a desktop. Your perfect candidate should know how to develop for both. They need to be able to name some crucial differences, such as screen size, touch input, limited multitasking, and variation in browser plug-ins. Candidates must know how to create a great user experience on any platform.

14. Show them a code, and ask them to find the error in it.

When hiring a web developer, try not to ask your candidate to write code by hand during an interview, because it is not an ideal setting for code-writing. We suggest you show your candidate a piece of code — such as a Java class and the JavaScript that invokes it — with some strategic errors in it and ask the candidate to debug it. This is a quick way to check their technical knowledge and find out their attention to detail.

While hiring a web developer at Cosmic Development, these 14 questions help us narrow down our list of candidates to those with the best technical qualities and strong interpersonal skills. For us, hiring candidates with balanced skills has been a great way to get ahead of hiring high-quality web developers in recent years. Using staff augmentation, we select top-notch developers and create high-performing dedicated teams for our clients and business partners. We can hire the most suitable candidates for you. Let us know by clicking here.

Sources:

• codementor.io/blog/web-developer-interview-questions-3ey8yl7epg
• theappsolutions.com/blog/development/tips-how-to-hire-web-developer/
• medium.com/@arun_goyal/how-to-hire-a-web-developer-7ee05caf5519

The post 14 Questions You Need To Ask When Hiring A Web Developer appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Social media marketing (SMM) is the basic element for achieving success in the digital world of marketing and for attaining business growth through the usage of various platforms. Companies that want to increase their brand awareness online must begin by creating an SMM strategy, according to their industry. For that reason, we decided to interview our colleague Daniela Dukovska who has been working in Cosmic Development for more than five years. Her vast experience in the social media world took her from the role of an assistant to a team leader and she is the most suitable person to discuss which social media platform is better and why.

Throughout the past five years, Daniela and her team have been working diligently for our client Social-Hire helping them achieve their social media goals and obtain positive results. One of the recent recognitions they earned is being named the Top 12 Social Media Agencies for 2020. As a result of this achievement, we decided to ask Daniela how she helps with the SMM strategy and how she delegates responsibilities to her team. We were also interested in finding out which social media management tools she prefers to use and which is her favorite social media platform. To discover that and more, continue reading the entire interview below.

1. You have been with Cosmic Development for over five years now. Could you tell us how your Cosmic journey started? What were the challenges you faced when you started working for Cosmic as a Social Media Assistant?

My journey as a Social Media Assistant in Cosmic Development started in April of 2015. I was one of the first employees to join the team in the newly opened office in Bitola. At that time, I was looking for a career change and I stumbled upon an opportunity from Cosmic where they needed English native speakers for one of their clients. 

I had never worked as a Social Media Marketing Assistant before and at that time I was not aware of the tremendous impact it had on businesses. As this was all new for me, everything was challenging and exciting.

2. Which social media channels do you recommend for businesses and why?

It really depends on the business. The best approach for most businesses is to handpick social media channels that make sense for their brand. For instance, if you are in the fashion industry, the best choice would be to use Instagram because it is visual. If you’re in the tech industry, for example, using Twitter or LinkedIn would give the best result. Curating content and engaging with your audience is the most important when trying to grow your business. 

By using Google Analytics, you can see which channels are bringing the most traffic to your site and concentrate more on them, rather than wasting your time on a platform where you aren’t able to get any engagement.

Read more: Top Tips for Improving Social Media Marketing

3. Which social media management tools do you use?

Buffer, Feedly, and Hootsuite are just a few of the tools I use on a daily basis to stay on top of my social media tasks. Buffer is used for managing content for all social media accounts. It offers two products: one for publishing content and the other for analyzing SMM performance. I prefer the latter. Hootsuite is a tool that is used to monitor all social media networks and I strongly recommend it for Twitter accounts. And last but not least, Feedly is an app that is used to curate content.  

4. How to encourage engagement on social media?

If you want to increase social media engagement, first you’ll need to grow your followers. You can do this by advertising on Facebook or Twitter, depending on which social channel is more relevant for your business.

Being active on your social media channels shows that you are worth following. By posting content regularly it is only natural that your followers will grow and engage with you. When customers contact you on social media you are presented with an opportunity to build long-lasting relationships. 

5. What’s your favorite social media platform personally and why?

I’d have to say that LinkedIn is one of my favorite social media platforms because it is strictly for business. You don’t encounter a lot of spam as you do on the other platforms and you connect with many interesting personalities around the world. LinkedIn allows you to meet people from around the world who share similar professional interests as you. Moreover, you get to know professionals who work in your niche and share valuable experiences and insights. I like the fact that you get very positive and friendly feedback from educated people.

6. Throughout the years working as a Social Media Marketing Assistant in Cosmic Development, you became also a Leader of the Social Media Marketing team. Could you tell us how you motivate your team?

I motivate my team by supporting them. When leading my team, I listen to them, value their needs, and respect them for the work they do. I do my best to provide an opportunity for each team member to learn new skills and help them grow professionally. In my opinion, communication is very important for achieving the goals we want as a team. Therefore, it is crucial to communicate on time and about every possible issue that may affect the business.

7. How do you delegate responsibilities to your team?

When managing a team, you need to divide the tasks equally so that not one person has more responsibilities than the other. Therefore, prior to delegating the responsibilities, you need to know which team member is the most appropriate person for a specific task. When I choose the right person for the job, I have a talk with them to make sure that they are comfortable with taking on the responsibilities. Afterwards, I give them instructions on who can provide the proper training and feedback. 

8. What is your most valuable personal achievement?

My most valuable personal achievement would have to be maintaining a happy family life while going to school to finish my degree as a lab technician in Danish. I went to school during the day and took Danish lessons in the afternoon. This particular achievement was very challenging for me because I was taking care of two small children at the time. Actually, I often wonder how I found the strength to accomplish this. 

9. What do you like to do for fun?

The current situation has disabled us to travel, which is something we used to do often. Having a close family all over the world prompts us to visit many different countries which we enjoy very much. Nowadays, I find myself doing a lot of reading, baking, and gardening during my spare time.

The post How to Manage a Social Media Marketing Team appeared first on Cosmic Development.

While remote work is the new trend of work of the future, building a business with website expertise is the right thing to do. There are several services and positions that might help you discover or carve out your next career, start building a business, and do global tech for good within the new marketplace needs. To achieve this, we suggest you take the following steps:

1. Create Niche Websites
2. Deal in Domains
3. Membership Site
4. Web Development
5. Reseller Hosting
6. Website Maintenance Service
7. WordPress Expertise
8. WordPress Theme Creator 
9. Website Consultant
10. Quality Assurance

1. Create Niche Websites 

What is a niche or specifically targeted website? 

A niche website is a website which targets a narrow group of people in a broader market, similar interests. While focusing on a particular keyword that people use on search engines, a niche or specifically targeted website provides its visitors helpful and quality content that answers a question or solves a problem connected to the term or searched keyword. 

How to build a niche site? 

Building a niche website takes work, but it is not impossible. It will be necessary to invest a little in it, but it can give you a lot of profit once it is settled. 

How to earn from a niche site? 

Building a specific niche website when building a business is an excellent way to make a decent income. Many people worldwide have been able to grow their Niche or custom targeted websites into a passive income that minimizes effort. However, there is the right amount of effort involved, and it might take a year or more to start seeing reliable earnings. You can monetize your site with ads, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, and more.

2. Deal in Domains 

What is dealing with domains? 

Your website’s address is the domain name, and this is what people write or type in the browser URL bar to go to and visit your website. Explained more quickly, if your website was a house, your domain name would have been the address. Dealing Domains is buying, parking, and selling domains. 

How to start dealing in domains? 

The truth is that anyone can buy a domain. The trick is knowing which domains are worth buying to make a real profit from them. The number one thing to know when building a business is how to choose the right names; the searched words that will bring you revenue are most likely to get traffic. This means that the most valuable terms are those that: 

1. Include popular keywords
2. Are generic and category-defining
3. Are short
4. Are a .com.  

3. Membership Site 

What is a membership site? 

A site with membership is a part with a gate from your online business where only those who subscribe can access the content you have placed behind the gates. 

How to build a membership site? 

A “gate” is the barrier you create into your website using a plugin. The important thing is that you offer valuable information to your audience in exchange for a small fee. For example, you can offer them downloadable documents, eBooks, newsletters, interactive live and recorded webinars, video content, training programs, and anything that moves your soul! 

How to earn with a membership site? 

This one is pretty easy. You charge your audience a fee in exchange for “backstage” access. This means having access to information products, exclusive content or interaction, and more. Exclusivity comes at a price. You can also earn affiliate marketing, sell an online course, and more. 

4. Web Development

What is web development? 

Web development indicates to creating, building, and maintaining websites. It involves aspects such as web design, web publishing, web programming, and database management. Front-end web programmers are responsible for how the website looks in the end. They create the website’s layout and integrate graphics, applications – such as a retail checkout tool, and other content. The backend is like the portion of the iceberg below the surface. Without it, the website cannot function. The backend deals with servers, applications, databases, etc. 

How to become a web developer? 

Working as a web developer comes with many benefits and challenges, and it takes a lot to learn and effort on how to do it right. Thankfully, there are many online courses you can take to learn all you need to know. With the proper knowledge and practice, you could find yourself halfway to your dream job.

How to earn with web development? 

It will depend on your experience and expertise, but even a one-time gig can make you earn some good money. Most of the web development jobs that you’ll find online charge per project, but many clients offer long-term projects at a much higher rate, and these can last months and even years. Start composing your portfolio and building a business today. 

5. Reseller Hosting 

What is a hosting reseller? 

Web hosting reseller is an option that involves one hosting provider, the company renting hard drive space and bandwidth to another small or middle-size business company which then leases the room to another party – entrepreneur or small business. The reseller hosting can provide hosting to your current clients as if you are the web hosting company. 

How to start a reseller hosting business? 

According to some research, this business works like this, basically:

• Research and select a hosting company
• Buy the package for a reseller that meets the goals of your business
• Understand and know your target market to locate your new customers 
• Create your own branded hosting packages
• Decide your price
• Sell hosting packages to your clients
• Earn profit 

The plans for resellers are created for earning are often the least expensive and easiest way to start a hosting business. This option lets you set up, control, and manage the backend of the websites, emails, and domain management for your business and your clients. 

6. Website Maintenance Service 

What is website maintenance? 

Website maintenance is a service that includes regular website check-ups for issues and mistakes and also keeping the website updated and relevant. Website maintenance services include editing, revising, and changing existing web pages to keep the website brand new. 

How to start a website maintenance service? 

Websites are like homes; someone needs to look after them on an ongoing basis, so they do not fall apart. Websites need to be taken care of; that is what is right for any business. 

How to earn with website maintenance services? 

Charging for website maintenance service packages is the best way to make a profit. The benefit is that the people willing to invest in your services are the kind of clients you want to keep close. Ensuring a good business relationship with them might land you a long-term job, making perfect money. Freelancers do great in this area. 

7. WordPress Expertise

What is a WordPress expert? 

This term refers to everyone who is well-experienced in WordPress and can create a high-quality WordPress website, stay on top of platform-related updates and news, and actively participate in the community. 

How to become a WordPress expert? 

If you have used or heard about WordPress in the past, you must know that it is not exactly easy to handle without help. “What is the right theme? What is the right package? Should I change this or that?” A WordPress expert can charge a fee to help people understand the magic of WordPress. Although you should get your training first if you haven’t already. 

How to earn as a WordPress Expert? 

One of the simplest ways for earning online using WordPress is to offer consulting services. If you are good at WordPress and can build and create custom designs for clients, you can record and teach WordPress tutorials to beginners or advanced users. Set up a business as a freelancer, or offer your services through your website or social media. You can read more about how to build a WordPress and Shopify website here.

8. WordPress Theme Creator

What is a WordPress Theme Creator? 

WordPress’s themes are a collection of templates and stylesheets used to define a WordPress-powered website’s appearance and display. 

How to become a WordPress Theme Creator? 

If you are a Front-End web developer or a Web designer, you might earn more by creating WordPress Themes. You do not have to be a top-class designer or programmer to design a great looking WordPress theme, but you need to know your targeted audience preferences. 

How to make money as a WordPress Theme Creator? 

You may sell your WordPress themes at Template Monster, Themeforest, Creative Market, or sell and resell them from your site. Just like WordPress plugins, you might also work on custom WordPress theme projects for clients to make some extra dollars. See how our Bookmark developers do this.

9. Website Consultant

What is a Web Consultant? 

A web advisor and consultant is someone who provides expert insights and advice. In most cases, these experienced web developers and consultants are trained and have exceptional knowledge of a particular interest point. A good website advisor and a consultant should have experience and be knowledgeable in all the major areas of a website. This includes branding, marketing, analysis, research, and design. The website consultant’s primary role is to oversee and plan the finalization of the online website project. They provide security for the delivery of a successful website to the client. 

How to become a web consultant? 

A web consultant is engrossed mainly on the website’s information architecture, ensuring that all the technical facets are in place. Web consultants do not have to build an online application or website. Their work is to coordinate and oversee the whole process. So, a web consultant does a little bit of everything. That is why they should know a bit about everything. 

How to earn as a web consultant? 

Web consultants get hired by many companies and brands every day. Usually, they work independently, but some companies offer these services that can employ you. If you want to see how a web consultancy looks, schedule a free consultation with our Cosmic experts here and see how we can improve your website and help you with the process of building a business. 

10. Quality Assurance 

What is Quality Assurance? 

Quality Assurance is someone who gives their opinion about a random website. Some companies may require you to install software, which will enhance your activity to be recorded. You might be informed to talk about the design of the site, quality, and ease-of-use. 

How to become a Quality Assurance? 

Many businesses save time by hiring quality assurance and people to test out their websites. These users earn money to find flaws in websites and apps. Some of the best things about quality assurance are that you do not have to know about tech to become a website tester, but you have to understand how the websites work. 

How can this apply to your business?

Discover more about outsourcing technology for good if you want to learn how building a business can bring you success.

Sources:

• medium.com/med-daily/seek-out-the-right-expertise-for-your-business-c4402afee699
• medium.com/swlh/how-to-sell-your-expertise-in-three-easy-steps-1f5dd5c01f99
• connectedwomen.co/magazine/5-in-demand-skills-for-remote-workers-this-2020/
• themuse.com/advice/7-skills-youll-need-to-land-a-workfromhome-job
• wifitribe.co/blog/best-remote-jobs/

The post Building a Business with a Website Expert appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Websites and online forums thrive with numerous opinions on when is the perfect timing for a company to begin outsourcing IT services. If you are considering this option, you probably started an online search for the pros and cons of outsourcing. If that’s what brought you here, you are in the right place. Get ready to get inside information from a company offering outsourcing services for more than 10 years. Read our hands-on experience in addition to an ebook that will guide you on how to get started.

We are a Canadian IT company specializing in providing IT solutions and staff augmentation to other brands, and we discovered the numerous advantages of outsourcing IT services a long time ago. In this article, we’d like to share our practices to help you decide if outsourcing is the right choice for your organization.

First, let’s elaborate on the questions that probably started spinning around in your head from the moment when you began thinking about outsourcing. “Is it safe?”, “Why do companies use outsourcing?” or “Will outsourcing make you more good or harm?”. To help you clarify your ideas and thoughts on outsourcing, we decided to provide you with answers to the questions most often asked. Here we cover some of the fundamental questions that many ask before outsourcing IT services.

Basic Benefits of Outsourcing IT services

There are numerous reasons why you should begin outsourcing IT services today. Companies use outsourcing to cut costs, save on resources, operations, and increase the company revenue without hiring more employees. We have already covered the basic benefits of outsourcing in this blog post. As there are numerous reasons why you should begin outsourcing tech today, here is a summary of what is discussed in our ebook:

• Obtaining a high-quality product for a lower price
• Saving time by avoiding to figure everything out by yourself
• Finding employees that are valuable, trustworthy, and dedicated to growing your business

Outsourcing will not only help you save money and time, but it will also aid you with cutting down the exact amount of expenses on the needed resources. Alongside the overall cost-saving process, companies may also save on salaries, employee benefits, and training costs. Furthermore, outsourcing may prove helpful in terms of company rearrangements by adjusting the business model. Hiring different talents and experts from various industries on a global level might help you bring freshness to the current team and provide new perspectives for the company itself.

Hire a Dedicated Team for Your Brand

When hiring a remote team, note that the process may vary from one software house to another. Therefore, we offer you our simplified approach in five easy-to-use steps:  

1. State your preference in terms of needs, timespan, and budget  
2. Search along with initial selection (pre-vetting) 
3. Decide who will be invited for a final evaluation
4. Pick the right fit 
5. Sign one simple agreement and get started

Discover the three stages for finding a reliable software house and our five simple steps for hiring a dedicated team for your brand by downloading our ebook.

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Videos, video editing programs, video editing apps, video marketing tools… Videos are everywhere we look around us. We live in an era when people prefer video content much more over the old-fashioned written content. Watching videos is far more interesting and funnier than reading long articles. People’s average attention span is 8 seconds, which means that you have only 8 seconds to get the reader’s attention. And this is more achievable through video content because people will more likely continue watching an interesting video rather than read an article that might seem long as an eternity.

The video editing industry is surely taking over and the processes of arrangement and manipulation of video shots are the latest trend that gets the reader’s attention better than anything else. For that reason, we decided to interview our Video Editor Svetozar Petrovic, who works at our office in Belgrade, Serbia, to tell us more about his experience with video editing for our client Rumble. Apart from being directly involved in the world of video editing, Svetozar has experience as a producer and director, too. To find out more about Svetozar’s career journey and the importance of video editing, continue reading the entire interview below.

1. Could you tell us how your Cosmic journey began? How would you describe the years as part of the Cosmic family?

I’ve been working for Cosmic since 2015. Before that, I used to work for a Serbian advertising agency. I loved that job too, but compared to Cosmic it was much more stressful. What I appreciate the most about Cosmic is that assignments are clear and reasonable, deadlines are not tight, and one’s skills and creativity are respected.

2. What was the biggest challenge when you started working in Cosmic Development?

Cosmic Development’s office in Belgrade was huge back then. I was coming from a small agency with a family-like atmosphere. The biggest challenge for me when I started working for Cosmic was getting used to a large number of colleagues and to the noisy environment that comes with large collectives and open space offices. But very soon I made good friends in Cosmic and I got a smaller office where I could work from and everything became family-like again. 

3. Could you describe a situation when you encountered a technical challenge in your career? How did you overcome it?

Technical challenges happen all the time. I like to learn new things and my first impulse is to try to get to know more about the problem and solve it myself or go around it. That way you can get two things done at the same time – overcome the challenge and learn a new skill. But then again, we cannot be experts in everything, sometimes it’s more efficient if you reach out and outsource an expert on the subject to help you.

Find out how video content brought success to Rumble by clicking here

4. As a video editor, could you tell us whose work do you admire the most? What do you like to watch in your free time?

At the moment I work as a video editor for most of the time, but I am also interested in filmmaking and production, and people I professionally admire are mostly movie directors. I like to watch anything that’s good, regardless of the genre. I guess my personal favorites would be movies that work on multiple levels, that are both entertaining and deeply meaningful at the same time. It would be hard for me to make a coherent list, but names that first come to mind are Coen brothers, Sorrentino, Ruben Ostlund…

5. How do you stay updated on the latest tools and trends in the video editing industry? What video editing software have you used so far? 

That is not too hard today when so much information is only a click away. There are many great tutorials, specialized news portals and forums out there with tons of useful new info every day. The hardest part is to keep pace with all the stuff because everything is constantly speeding up. But most importantly, you need to know how to differentiate between quality content and click baits that will waste your time.

I used Final Cut Pro some time ago but I am an ‘Adobe guy’ and Adobe products are my tools of preference because they offer a huge amount of options and yet they are easy to understand. There are lots of ‘Apple fanatics’ in creative industries that would look at you with disdain if you mentioned Adobe Premiere (Adobe’s primary editing software), but in my opinion, Macs are more style than substance. I am glad that Adobe Premiere has become an industry-standard now, even for high budget projects.

6. Apart from being a successful Video Editor for Rumble, do you have other experience you would like to share with us? 

Fortunately enough, besides editing, with Rumble, I got a chance to do other exciting stuff such as promo videos I did from scratch – screenwriting, shooting, editing, special effects, post-production… It was a huge experience to go through all the stages of the process by myself.

7. As we can witness, your passion for video editing goes far beyond editing videos. Could you tell us more about your experience as a producer and director? How did it happen? What were your responsibilities on that project?

I got a request from Rumble to make a pilot episode for a TV show that would be based on funny viral videos. I set up a team and did the production work as well as co-writing and codirecting. The whole team, from hosts and actors to tech people, was from Serbia and we did everything here from castings to postproduction. We had a crew of around 15 people, all of whom were experienced professionals. It was a very time and energy-consuming task but at the same time, it was fun and adrenaline-filled for each and every second. Definitely the best months of my career up till now.

8. If you were to give a piece of advice to your less-experienced colleagues who are video editors like yourself, what would it be?

Listen to your client/director. The best editing job is the one that fits their needs as closely as possible. And while doing that, if you manage to squeeze in your artistic imprint – good for you. But that’s only a bonus, not the purpose of your work.

9. What do you see as your most significant professional accomplishment so far? What is your most cherished personal achievement outside of work?

That would be the aforementioned TV show pilot and a documentary short about ex-Yugoslavian workers living in Slovenia and their rights. I hope I will soon be able to fulfill my dream and make a non-documentary short movie.

Regarding personal achievements outside of work, I guess that would be some charity work I have been doing during the past few years and learning how to sail.

10. What do you like to do for fun?

To have endless coffees and discussions with my friends, to go out clubbing, and to go sailing. I dreamed of going sailing since I was at college but it seemed impossible back then. With time, sailing became more popular and available for the general public. And around the time I got to Cosmic, I was able to take a few courses and become a skipper. So I could say that Cosmic and sailing share a special connection in my life.

You can also discover how Rumble’s content editor Nick Naumoff chooses the best ideas for their website. If you need experts like Svetozar and Nick on your team, do not hesitate to contact us and schedule a free IT consultation. We will build a team for your brand!

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