For the past 25 years, I’ve hired hundreds of offshore, nearshore or even remote developers and built high-performing teams across multiple countries. One of the most common mistakes I repeated see software development companies make is treating their offshore and nearshore developers like code monkeys instead of engineers.

They hire brilliant talent from places like India, Vietnam, Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Brazil and other destinations — software developers and IT talent with experience at top-tier companies — then limit their responsibilities to maintenance tasks and bug fixes.

No structure. No guidance. No clarity.

Why?

Because companies see offshore and nearshore teams as a cost arbitrage opportunity rather than an innovation engine. This is backward thinking. Your offshore developer typically costs $20-50/hour in India because of where they live, not because of their skills.

A software engineer in São Paulo or Bangalore may be as good as (or better than) one in San Francisco or in the Bay Area, but they are often underutilized due to outdated mindsets about outsourcing amounts the technical leaders.

We recently hired a Senior Architects in Brazil who spent six years at Microsoft. He might be one of the smartest architects we’ve hired. Yet, in many organizations, talent like his is wasted because offshore teams are treated as cheap labor instead of core value contributors.

The Right Way to Work with Offshore and Near-Shore Developers

At ISHIR, we’ve built a 200+ person software development and innovation accelerator by following one simple rule:

Every developer, regardless of location, deserves meaningful work that challenges them and feeds their passion and leverages their unique abilities.

“Great talent is everywhere, but opportunities are not.” – Rishi Khanna

Here’s how to unlock the full potential of offshore and nearshore teams:

1. Give them significant feature modules to own – Offshore developers aren’t just cheap support staff. Assign them meaningful work and hold them accountable for real impact.

2. Include them in understanding the problem – Involve them early in software product development discussions, so they understand the business context, not just the technical requirements and specifications.

3. Encourage them to propose solutions – Don’t just hand them a spec, let them contribute ideas, problem-solve and innovate.

4. Let them participate in architectural decisions – Treat them like software engineers, not just coders.

5. Build a culture of collaboration and innovation – If you want your offshore or nearshore team to perform at their best, integrate them into your core business objectives, business processes and decision-making.

The Global Talent Market Has Changed

Remember, over ninety percent of the world’s software developers don’t live in the United States. And the best ones have options.

If you treat offshore or nearshore development teams like second-class engineers, they won’t stick around.

Hiring offshore and nearshore isn’t just about saving money, it’s about tapping into global talent pool and create opportunities to leverage global talent to help you achieve your business goals faster.

Businesses that understand this will build stronger, more innovative solutions with talented teams. Those that don’t will keep wondering why their offshore and nearshore teams never seem to deliver.

Are You Making the Same Mistake And Missing The Opportunity?

At ISHIR, we’ve spent decades building high-performance agile development teams. If you’re struggling with offshore, nearshore or remote team performance, it’s not about their capabilities — it’s about how you plan to leverage them, prepare and structuring the work you wish to achieve.