Projects come in all shapes and sizes. While some are the standard jobs you complete every week, others are more challenging and complex.
These challenging projects are the ones that use a lot of time and resources, and really push you to the limit. For these reasons, many companies avoid them, instead preferring to focus on easier projects. At Isotoma, we love a challenge.
We believe in taking on projects that inspire us; the ones you can’t stop thinking about even when you’re finished for the day. It’s not that we need extra motivation — far from it — but we’re at our best when we’re put under pressure by a demanding yet energising project.
It’s not just the inspiration that draws us to these projects, though. Over the years, we’ve recognised the many additional benefits that come with successfully completing demanding jobs.
Here are three reasons why your company should be challenging itself too.
Upskilling Your Team
Projects can be challenging for different reasons. They may have a tight deadline, a limited budget, or complex requirements. But, at the heart of most challenging projects is a need to adapt, innovate, and overcome.
You can never know too much. Though your team may be experts in their field, that doesn’t mean they don’t have capacity for growth. In facing up to a testing project, you have to commit to expanding your knowledge and applying your expertise to deliver the perfect solution. Whether that means learning how to use an unfamiliar system or adopting new techniques, you should embrace the test.
With each difficult project your team completes, their skills are further increased. As a result, you’ll diversify your capabilities and build a knowledge base that makes developing innovative solutions that bit easier.
Building Confidence for Subsequent Projects
The countless hours of hard work, planning, and developing are all made worth it by the feeling of completing a challenging project. It’s a combination of accomplishment, relief, and pride. What you might not notice at the time, though, is the confidence it inspires; but that’ll become obvious when you embark on the next project.
Innovation is not always instigated by knowledge. It often stems from having the confidence and belief to try something new or unusual. After completing a complex project, your team will have more confidence in their abilities than ever. From this self-belief, an ingenious idea or solution could be born.
Taking Pride in Your Work
Uniting to achieve a common goal is a powerful experience. As your staff tackle a tough project, they’ll form strong working relationships and a deep cohesion that bonds the team together. When the project is complete, they’ll experience a great sense of pride that inspires them to take on any challenge in the future.
The completion of the project also gives your company something to shout about. When you’ve pulled off a demanding project, feature your work in a case study or add it to your portfolio, and it will become a fantastic advertisement for your company.
One of Our Most Challenging Projects
Over the years, Isotoma has embarked on an array of difficult projects. However, our work with the BBC research and development department was one of the most technically challenging short-term projects we’ve ever undertaken.
Our brief was to build a front-end application that interfaces with back-end services; in other words, a vision mixer that works in a web browser. The project was challenging on many levels, not least that our application had to reduce the job’s requirements from half-a-dozen people to a mouse and a keyboard.
While working with BBC R&D, we learned a lot, further developed our expertise in using React, and developed an application we’re really proud of.
Accept the Challenge
Difficult projects are not something your business should shy away from. Embracing them gives you the opportunity to achieve something great, enhance your skills, and improve the confidence and spirit among your team.
At Isotoma, we’re always on the lookout for formidable, inspiring challenges. If you’ve got a demanding software development project for us, we’d love to find out more about it, so get in touch with our team today.