In today’s fast-paced software landscape, companies face a persistent challenge: how to build quality products quickly without overwhelming internal teams or compromising on innovation. The pressure to deliver faster, scale efficiently, and stay ahead of competitors has many organizations looking beyond traditional hiring models.
Enter the external development squad—a game-changing approach that’s transforming how companies build software and manage technical resources. Whether you’re a startup racing to market or an established company scaling new features, external squads offer a strategic advantage that goes far beyond simply “outsourcing development.”
An external development squad is a dedicated team of experienced software engineers, designers, and technical specialists who work as an extension of your organization. Unlike traditional outsourcing where you hand off a project and wait for delivery, external squads integrate deeply with your team, processes, and culture.
Key characteristics:
Think of it as having a fully-functional development team without the overhead of traditional hiring, onboarding, and infrastructure management.
Finding and hiring experienced developers can take 3-6 months. External squads eliminate this bottleneck entirely.
The advantage:
Real impact: A fintech company needed to build a real-time trading platform but lacked in-house Elixir expertise. By partnering with an external squad, they launched their MVP in 8 weeks instead of the projected 6+ months it would have taken to hire and train an internal team.
Speed is competitive advantage. External squads help you ship faster by removing common bottlenecks.
How they accelerate delivery:
Business benefit: Launch products 2-3x faster than traditional hiring approaches, capturing market opportunities before competitors.
Your core team’s time is your most valuable resource. External squads free them to focus on what matters most.
Strategic benefits:
Example scenario: An e-commerce platform used an external squad to rebuild their payment integration system while their internal team focused on developing innovative checkout features that differentiated them from competitors. Both initiatives succeeded simultaneously—something impossible with their previous team size.
Business needs fluctuate. External squads let you scale engineering capacity up or down without the commitment and cost of full-time employees.
Flexibility advantages:
Financial impact: Companies report 30-50% cost savings compared to maintaining equivalent full-time capacity year-round, especially for projects with variable workloads.
External squads bring proven practices, diverse experience, and objective perspectives that reduce project risk.
Risk mitigation benefits:
Quality improvement: Code reviews, testing practices, and architectural decisions benefit from teams who’ve seen what works (and what fails) across dozens of projects.
The true cost of an engineer goes beyond salary. External squads offer predictable pricing with fewer hidden costs.
Total cost comparison:
Internal Engineer:
External Squad:
Bottom line: External squads typically cost 20-40% less than equivalent internal capacity, with significantly better predictability and flexibility.
The best external squads don’t just build software—they elevate your internal team’s capabilities.
Learning benefits:
Long-term value: After working with an external squad, your internal team is stronger, more capable, and better equipped to maintain and extend the systems built.
External squads aren’t the right solution for every situation, but they excel in these scenarios:
1. Rapid MVP Development
2. Scaling Existing Products
3. Specialized Technical Needs
4. Time-Critical Projects
5. Technical Debt and Modernization
To get the most value from external squads, follow these proven practices:
Set clear expectations:
Communication tools:
The best external squads function as true extensions of your organization, not vendors at arm’s length.
Integration practices:
Cultural alignment: Choose partners whose values and working style match your organization.
Clarity prevents confusion and keeps everyone productive.
Establish:
Ensure value persists beyond the engagement.
Documentation practices:
Begin with a well-defined project to build trust and establish workflows.
Recommended approach:
Quality external squads invest time understanding your domain, customers, and business model. They ask questions, review existing products, and study your market. While they may not have decades of industry experience, their outside perspective often leads to innovative solutions.
Mitigation: Choose partners with relevant experience and provide thorough onboarding materials.
Professional external squads have reputations to protect. They typically maintain higher code quality standards than overworked internal teams under pressure.
Quality assurance: Establish code review processes, automated testing requirements, and quality metrics. Good external teams welcome accountability.
External squads should follow the same security practices as internal teams.
Security measures:
Reputable external squad providers maintain team stability and have backup resources.
Risk management:
Track these metrics to evaluate external squad impact:
Velocity Metrics:
Quality Metrics:
Business Metrics:
Team Metrics:
The traditional model of building large, permanent engineering teams for every need is evolving. Forward-thinking companies are adopting hybrid models that combine:
This hybrid approach offers the best of all worlds: strategic control with operational flexibility.
Ready to explore how an external squad could accelerate your development?
Steps to begin:
Identify the right project: Choose a well-defined feature or system that has clear requirements and success criteria
Define success metrics: Establish how you’ll measure the squad’s effectiveness and project success
Find the right partner: Look for proven experience, cultural fit, and relevant technical expertise
Start with a trial: Begin with a 4-8 week pilot project to evaluate collaboration quality
Scale based on results: Expand the engagement based on demonstrated value and team fit
At Async Squad Labs, we specialize in providing high-performance external development squads that integrate seamlessly with your team. Our approach combines:
Deep technical expertise in modern technologies like Elixir, Go, Python, and AI integration
Proven methodologies refined across dozens of successful projects
Seamless integration with your existing tools, processes, and culture
Flexible engagement models that scale with your needs
Quality commitment backed by measurable outcomes and transparent communication
Whether you need to:
We can provide the external squad expertise to make it happen efficiently and effectively.
External development squads represent a strategic evolution in how companies build software. They offer the expertise, flexibility, and velocity that modern businesses need without the overhead and commitment of traditional hiring.
The question isn’t whether external squads can improve productivity—companies across industries have proven they can. The real question is whether you’re ready to leverage this approach to accelerate your development, free your team to focus on what matters most, and scale efficiently as opportunities emerge.
In a world where speed and adaptability are competitive advantages, external squads aren’t just a nice-to-have option—they’re becoming essential for companies that want to move fast and build great software.
The choice is clear: continue struggling with hiring bottlenecks and capacity constraints, or partner with experienced external squads who can help you ship faster, scale smarter, and win in your market.
Ready to explore how an external squad can accelerate your development? Contact us to discuss your project needs and learn how Async Squad Labs can help you deliver faster and more efficiently.
Interested in the technologies we use? Check out our articles on Elixir benefits and AI integration best practices, or explore our full range of services.
