#11 - Justin Jones: Documentation, Relationships and Communication

I have spoken with my longtime friend Justin Jones about his experience with outsourcing by working with a network of hundreds of consultants and suppliers all over the globe. We went deep about the 3 aspects he finds key to being successful on outsourcing: Documentation, Relationships and Communication. We also had some fun with "A Tough Call"

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Transcription

Short Recap

Very interesting chat with WSIWorld VP of Professional Services - Justin Jones about 3 Outsourcing pillars (Documentation, Communication and Establishing Relationships), experienced over several years working with literally hundreds of consultants. A detail description of a useful support “toolkit” and, still yet, the “traditional” tough call.

Timeline

01:32 About WSIWorld
03:51 Defining Outsourcing
05:52 On WSI’s Outsourcing geographies
09:16 On WSI’s internal training and coaching towards meeting client’s expectations
11:37 About building relationships
16:35 The key to effective communication
23:11 Horror Stories
32:06 What does it take to make a great consultant
34:54 Being Mr.” fix it”
41:05 The tough call
48:02 Final message

Key Points

"Outsourcing is about buying something for a lower price than if we were to do it while assuring improved quality. "

"Once you find a good expert freelancer who best fits your need, you don’t want to lose that person. "

"Gathering the right people around you is the key to success. "

"Better to employ an army of micro-experts that team towards the solution than a “one does all” freelancer. "

"Project Management is a gateway to growth. "

"You build in the cost of mistakes. "

Links Mentioned

Trello - This project management tool is like a magical customizable to do list on a single interface, which you can share with others in real-time.
Mura.ly - Mural.ly is a creative tool for you to drag & drop rich media files, links, and documents onto a big HTML5 drawing board, which is a great way to collect inspiration and gather thoughts. It also supports collaboration that allows designers to brainstorm cool ideas remotely.
Go Visually - Free tool GoVisually allows you to mark annotations and place comments on any part of your project so designers and clients can collaborate to revise projects online without sending painful emails.
Mind Meister - Mindmeister is a powerful mindmapping tool, but also has the functionality of many collaboration tools. Designers can use this to craft ideas and concepts.
Concept Board - ConceptBoard is an instant whiteboard tool for teams and projects.

Project Collaboration Tools:

Skype.com – day to day communication
Slack.com – like a virtual office
Dropbox.com – sharing files (automatically)
Basecamp.com – Project Management (all message here)
Google Drive – (live shared documents)

Guest:

I'm an Outsourcerer. I'm a DNN Geek. I help people with their sites @ DeskPal. I'm a #Pomodoro practitioner. I'm a husband and a father of 2 beautiful girls.