Build Successful Teams & Remain Profitable in the Age of AI and Economic Change - by Maria Cholakova

This talk addresses the challenges faced by businesses in maintaining profitability and successful team dynamics in the age of AI and economic shifts. The speaker, Maria, who is a founder and CEO, discusses the impact of rising costs, such as local taxes and salaries, which make it difficult for companies to sustain large in-house teams. She emphasizes the importance of a strategic hybrid model that combines in-house employees with external specialists to enhance scalability and flexibility. Maria also stresses the significance of developing junior talent as a future investment, and she argues against over-relying on AI to replace human roles, highlighting the need for mentorship and ongoing skill development within teams. The session concludes with insights on adapting to change and the importance of clean coding practices in collaborative environments.

Challenge accepted. [music] Challenge Challenge accepted. Challenge [music] accepted. Challenge accepted. P2 is always [music] challenge accepted. You know, a lot of great things started from Bliff. the oldest living city in Europe, the city of hills, art and tech innovation. >> And so is our very first speaker today. She's the she's a developer, a leader, a teacher, and a true community builder, >> founder and CEO of IT

Talents Academy, chairperson of Drupal Bulgaria Association and a driving force behind many initiatives that shape the IT community in Bulgaria. She's not only helping business scale smarter, but also creating opportunities for the next generation of IT professionals. >> Today, she'll talk about something vital for every leader in every company. How to build successful teams and remain profitable in the age of AI and economic change. >> Please

welcome to the stage from Bul Pliff, Bulgaria, >> MARIA. >> [music] >> Hello everybody. Just give me a sec. Thank you for the kind introduction and I'm so happy to see so many people here today. I'm really excited about being part of this conference for the first time and I will not miss another one for sure. Um, first a few words about me. Yeah. Okay. Little technical

problem. Okay, this works now. So I live and work in my hometown and I'm happy to be a founder of my own company from about an year ago. But other than that I also have a background as a developer. I would say that yeah even now I love programming a lot. So I continue working as a PHP developer. Yes, PHP we are still lives and kicking. Other

than that, I'm also part of several non-government associations. I have the big pleasure to teach Drupal, the techn technology I use to students in university. So I strongly believe in training the future experts, future rising stars in our technologies. Um I'm also a speaker, mental trainer, event organizer and I hope I'll see many of you again on the next events. And now the topic that I'm here

to present today it's about the problems that the businesses faces nowadays and also this reflects to developers which is pretty normal. So dur as my um functionality as a CEO and also as a developer I had the opportunities to see the problems from both sides. So here are some of the main features that I'll present. But most of all when you talk to businesses about their problems

about their struggles the concise way to present this is projects are not profitable anymore. This is a big issue of course and the reasons for this are multiple but most of all these are the economic changes that we have nowadays. you know, high local taxes everywhere, significant salaries costs, some raises during the last years as well. And it proves very difficult to maintain uh big teams of

in-house specialists anymore. Just the companies don't have the money to have this as it used to be before. On the other hand, recruiting and maintaining proves really expensive for most companies. Uh some countries experience real shortage of skilled IT developers which doesn't apply to Bulgaria for which I'm extremely happy because we have a big talent pool. So that's really amazing for us. But yes um outside of

us in Europe and USA there's still lack of talent and especially of talent development uh which is present some fears for the future but we'll see them in a few minutes. Another thing aside from the economic changes uh we see the big AI boom and this could be good this could be bad depending on how it is used as every tool that we have. So many companies

however choose to think of AI as the perfect solution that can replace humans, replace developers and especially replace junior developers which is a really really bad decision. But in the time being um most more and more companies are actually seeing that this is kind of a mistake or at least it doesn't have the results they expected in the beginning. uh while AI tools and automation are very

good things to have, it's proves and necessary to always have the human factor in the middle. Companies are still tempted to cut employees and that's why we see so many big layoffs. It's an inevitable. that um more and more of them see that this could have proven a mistake. And another thing that I already mentioned, replacing junior developers is something really scary because today's juniors are our

tomorrow seniors, our future stars. We cannot risk them and we cannot replace them by machines for sure. All these decisions, all these um yeah necessities they undermine this the team building and the successful delivery of projects. So the traditional approach is falling failing indeed. Um the old [snorts] in-house senior heavy teams that we used to have they are no more effective because companies cannot afford to keep

uh so many people there. There are too many uh too much fixed cost um due to salaries, benefits, trainings, even of course local taxes and most of all companies cannot be flexible. And nowadays one of the most important things that you can learn is to be adaptable to be flexible and if we are not we cannot move on with the new trends. So companies and I'm talking

mostly about small to midsize companies they need to adapt and they have already seen this. That's why more and more people more and more companies use another way of working. Um nowadays it it proves more um flexible in when we have some economic changes like we did. And the solution that they have seen or they are now trying is the so-called strategic hybrid model. What is this?

Well, it combines the best of both worlds. So you keep your main in-house team. Yeah. smaller sadly I'm also willing to see more people in house but uh other big part of the companies remain um out um out outsourced people or um uh external let's call them developers or professionals. This however provides big scalability and we'll see about this more. So how uh what is the best

way to handle this approach of in-house plus uh external specialists? Well, I would recommend that each company which is actually having an IT department or they are a digital agency that is actually providing such services. They must keep their incor or inhouse core team. Uh because these are the S code brains but these are project managers. These are the architects, the team leads, the people who doesn't

necessarily have all the technical knowledge but they have the knowledge about the product, the brand, um the goals of the business of the company and these are the people who take the best care of your company. External talent or the muscles. So um the needed power which can be expanded can be uh hired when um the necessity come. These are developers and experts. Uh maybe your company

even uses uh different technologies but in a project you need something else. So this is the time when you can get a specialized skills and for on the project basis or term based. Another thing that is very important to talk about is this um thing that we call seniority pyramid. This is about hiring developers of different levels. So far many companies are have this approach of hiring

mostly senior developers. Yeah, but this proves too expensive. Besides, you cannot train young juniors who will in the future become mid and senior developers and they will become your uh core member um employees. So it's always important to have a hybrid teams. uh this proves more uh affordable from financial point of view but also it keeps people progressing with levels with the knowledge about the company. Uh

usually how can this be uh made to work better? Well the senior people in your company senior leads they're the ones that take the main decisions technical decisions. They're the architect who provide uh the planning and everything about uh the implementation of the software you are building. But they are also mentors and this is something very important because we need to have seniors mentoring the junior. So

if we want to have seniors in the future of course uh the mid-level developers are usually the ones that handle core feature developments while juniors take less um let's call them smaller tasks but they learn in the process and what we can do now even with AI we can boost these juniors so they can become mid and senior developers even faster than before. And speaking about AI,

as everything else that we have used, it can be used in a good or a bad way. So it we should not forget that after all AI is just a tool. It's not always what you what you do for you. You know sometimes you know tell me about library is but there are people out there we go out there who are just waiting for and they can

provide they can provide libraries libraries very fast can do very bio to yourselves so tech no blind I trust I use them but we have them real work it really helps uh and uh and only because many coding we have we have step over how we can where we can find solutions find no we don't reinvent so that's not so that's not usual as you're supposed to

use as much as possible always but always don't take don't take always and um and you should that be sure And um I also I'm very very uh careful careful about it. We need those right. We need table right for you for you. But also for other also for other joining. So AI can produce maintainable and perform something very this is something very important to take care

of the generated generally. This is really a must. This is really a Um okay how can we how can we happen it's about always it's about always right for the right part many companies they don't have to work out it's just they can not only there outside people they care about they care about our about our Brazil So this is an old it's not only about not

only about human resources and I really hate and I really hate because people are people are not people as problems the problem solvers developers they deliver they deliver they don't just so this is something so this is something I cannot I cannot actually replace So developers developers solution to implement the solutions. How also know that you know that before you the requirement the requirement to the client

who have a clear this is something this developers needed something that something that is very all the followers all the skills were skilled for something that for some help that is good to have. It's not a necessity really necessity. Especially if you're planning to work as a freelancer or employee as a remote working um you should have clear you should have clear communication and not only that

but not only how to know how to manage yourself to the manager somebody is coming some issue how to how to think about good and bad how what's bad how to think problems you can save them for making them for making mistakes and so on. You should be also you should be also flexible to ask questions to clarify things clarify things before you start and things like

that and things like that really really really important that this is something for the companies more and more companies they're not just looking they're not just looking with how many so they're wearing so heavily wearing heavily on the soft skill I think I mentioned here again about standards and coding important really important client businesses already know they already know this so I urge my let's have clean

let's have clean um um something that's also that's also really important um cheaper solutions, cheaper solutions. But soon it's soon they figure out because they figure out that it is very important to have also culture and to have to have a collaborative. So they can be easily and be easily quickly they can feel they can see about their work even this company only very important. So I'm

sure there are a lot of girls there a lot of developers here missed something that is something that's important and investing into junior talent. Um yeah this is a really painful topic for me because I'm also a trainer and a teacher in the university. So I really trust a lot in training into mentoring young people because we have seen plenty of technologies that have died just before

they don't have strong community. There are not young people who to take the lead and to move this technology is a progress. I didn't um forgot to mention in the beginning that I come from the Drupal community. This is one of the biggest and yeah most amazing open source communities. So I have always uh felt even as a junior I felt the support there and I'm we

have this saying come for the code stay for the community and this is indeed very important because now in our community we are actually the driving force and um the more and more newcomers that we um have in our community we are more uh confident about the future of our technology and it's the same with any other technologies. It's very important and companies should also understand this

if they want to have technologies free open source technologies if they want to have developers in their teams who are acquainted with um their product their software they're building they cannot rely only on senior developers because we need young people as well and they need to get trained we cannot have seniors out of nowhere they learn. So this is very important and I'm seeing some changes lately.

So companies also starting to take juniors as well. It's difficult I know and especially working with students I know how difficult is for them to find the first job but this is possible and there are companies who invest into training which is very good. yeah solution that is most mostly small companies take is for example they get a project but they don't have let's say PHP developers

so they reach out to fellow small companies uh that have such teams and they just work together and this is also relevant um abroad as well not only in Bulgaria and it is a very good thing um for example in our community I have seen a lot of companies who have been rivals uh now they are working together and they make more profit than before so it's

not all always about competition you can join forces and re sometimes achieve even better results one thing that is very important about um how to make this happen how to um get external developers or professionals Well, on boarding is a crucial step and this is something that most companies have struggles with. They are just not aware of how this happened and this is how um yeah outsourcing

companies can help. They should provide such on boarding lists and um this is important because if you onboard the person quicker faster, he or she can start working on the project a lot faster than taking weeks for example. But the company should also have prepared stuff like providing access to the repo, providing access to their um chat systems, emails and so on. Uh also checking how the

developer has local setups and things like that. Things that are very easy for us as developers but um some managers they're not so technically acquainted. So it's very important to have this clear of course regular communication and feedback is crucial. Uh it's also it helps also to you as a developer even if you're working as a freelancer be if you get early um feedback from the client

about your performance it will makes you perfect better you will improve things that you don't didn't see for example and um the whole collaboration with the client will be much better there will be no quarrels um things will be fixed faster so it's really important even if you're working alone to some company require this early feedback and regular feedback it will prove very good for you as

well as a specialist. [snorts] Um yeah about some key takeaways that we can have from this what is the most important thing that um the biggest change that we see this is the hybrid model that most companies embrace nowadays and this is the blend inhouse control with external flexibility. Let's not forget the blend of between different levels. So that we have junior, mid and senior. This proves

very uh good for the total budget so the final project budget doesn't explode. Uh AI of course don't do not forbid it. Do not uh exclude it. Use it use it heavily but always take what you get as a result. Don't trust blindly. use it as a tool. what it is actually. Um and yeah, manage actively best external partners happen when you have good management in the

companies and this is something that companies also should improve but it works well. As a final note, I could say that in the age of AI and economic change, the most successful agencies won't be the biggest ones. They will be the most adaptable. And it's not doesn't apply only to agencies to businesses. It also applies to developers. So we are developers. We know that we learn every

day. So we need to improve. And now most more than ever we need to adapt and to be flexible in order to have uh to find the best job. And this is from me. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you, Maria. >> Any questions? >> Yeah. Yeah. I'm very open to questions. Even if you don't want to ask me now, you can

find me in the spec corner. I'll go there just after this um presentation. So feel free please. But I have some t-shirts and since I'm from Florida, if I knew the answer, it was very simple to me. So I will have one more t-shirt to give away. Hey >> hello. >> Wow, different voice works. Um so thank you for your talk. uh you mentioned that uh the

first best of both worlds is when you have internal management and leads and then you have external developers. But from my experience very frequently I see when we have externals we have knowledge islands and sometimes we're chasing back a developer from like five years ago because they know this API and they developed it in very bad standards. So what's your advice here? Should a lead level in

internal company also include an architect or someone to you know show the seniority to developers so that the external developers actually are maintaining those standards and nice practices. >> Yeah, thank you for the question. It's a very good question. Yeah, actually this is also part of the on boarding process. When an employee is on boarded, I wanted the company to also present to him or to her

what are their company standards. Uh this of course includes always the general coding standards and best practices we receive from each technologies but it's very important for the employees to know from the beginning what is important uh to follow. So yeah, I would say that there are companies that totally and fully um outsource their teams but um what I have seen as best collaboration is when they

keep uh in-house senior whether it's a team lead or whether it's an architect sometimes it's just difference in job title but it's always best when there is one person who is most responsible who do the code reviews who will check how the tasks are um delivered on time or not. If the developer understands the requirements, if the communication is good with the client because sometimes we have

communication direct with clients. So yes, definitely this will be the most profitable. >> Thank you very much. >> Is there another question for here? >> Please. >> Okay. As you heard there is a dedicated speaker corner where Maria will be waiting for you in the next break and every uh speaker we will be waiting for you there after their respective talk. So let's send her Maria off

the stage with big round of applause. Maria Thomasa