Squad as a Service for Small Business

“Squad as a Service” gives SMEs a stable, cross‑functional product team instead of ad‑hoc outsourced headcount, which reduces friction, improves ownership, and accelerates delivery on complex IT projects.

What “Squad as a Service” Actually Is

Think of “Squad as a Service” as renting a mini product organization, not just developers.

A typical squad is a stable, cross‑functional team that might include:

• Product owner / product manager
• Tech lead / senior developer
• Backend and frontend developers
• QA / test engineer
• UX/UI designer 
• Sometimes DevOps / cloud engineer

They work as a unit, usually embedded into your business context, and stay together over time. Instead of you hiring and coordinating individuals, you get a ready‑made team with its own operating model.

How it works on larger IT projects

For larger projects (e.g., building or re‑platforming a core system, complex integration work, or a multi‑module SaaS product), the model typically runs like this:

1. Discovery & shaping phase
   The provider works with you to understand business goals, constraints, and existing systems. Together you define a product vision, high‑level scope, risks, and success metrics. Out of this comes an initial roadmap and squad composition.
2. Dedicated squad, time‑boxed engagement
   You contract a squad for a fixed capacity (e.g., full‑time for 6–12+ months). They behave like an internal product team: planning, estimating, delivering increments, demoing to stakeholders, and refining backlog.
3. Product‑oriented delivery, not task ticking
   Instead of “build this spec exactly,” you align on outcomes (e.g., reduce onboarding time by 30%, launch MVP in 12 weeks). The squad is responsible for decisions on architecture, tech choices, and trade‑offs to hit those outcomes.
4. Embedded collaboration and rituals
   They join your ceremonies or run joint ones: weekly/bi‑weekly planning, daily standup, reviews, retrospectives. Communication is continuous, not just at milestones. You usually get direct access to the team via Slack/Teams and task trackers.
5. Adaptable scope and composition
   As the project evolves, the squad can scale up/down or adjust skill mix (e.g., more QA before a big launch, more DevOps during migration). The provider manages hiring, onboarding, and performance inside the squad.
6. Long‑term ownership and transition
   Because the squad is stable, they accumulate domain knowledge. When you’re ready, you can either keep them as an ongoing product team, reduce their scope, or transition knowledge to an in‑house team with proper documentation and pairing.

Why it tends to beat traditional outsourcing for SMEs

Traditional outsourcing usually means: you send a specifications document to a vendor, they staff people and deliver against a fixed scope or time‑and‑materials contract with less product thinking and weaker continuity.

Here’s why squads usually work better for SMEs.

1. Product thinking vs. “order taking”

SMEs often need help clarifying what to build, not just building faster.

Traditional model: Vendors implement your requirements. If the specification is incomplete or misaligned, they still build it. You carry the product risk.

Squad model: Because a squad includes product and UX capability and works toward outcomes, they challenge and refine requirements. They run discovery, user interviews, experiments, and prioritize impact. This is critical for SMEs that lack large in‑house product teams.

Result: Less wasted build, fewer re‑writes, and a solution that fits real business needs.

2. Stable team with domain knowledge

SMEs can’t afford the churn and ramp‑up that large enterprises tolerate.

Traditional model: People come and go per phase or per contract. Developers may be swapped out without much notice. Knowledge leaves with individuals, and every phase feels like rebooting the project.

Squad model: The squad stays intact for months or years. They learn your domain, constraints, stakeholders, and edge cases. Over time they become your de‑facto product/tech team. That continuity is a huge multiplier for SMEs, where documentation and process are often lighter.

Result: Faster decision‑making, fewer regressions, better long‑term maintainability.

3. Clear ownership and accountability

In many outsourced setups, responsibility is diffuse; everyone blames scope, change requests, or “miscommunication.”

Traditional model: You own the product; they own the tasks. When outcomes slip (e.g., adoption, performance, usability), the vendor can say “We built what you asked.”

Squad model: The squad is responsible for delivering outcomes and quality. There is a clear “team of record” for the product or module. Roadmaps, KPIs, and tech decisions are co‑owned, not thrown over the wall.

Result: Easier governance for SMEs, who often lack complex vendor management structures.

4. Less coordination overhead for lean organizations

SMEs rarely have the bandwidth to manage many people or vendors.

Traditional model: You manage multiple roles: developers here, QA there, a separate designer, maybe a project manager contractor. You become the coordinator and project manager.

Squad model: You manage one unit: the squad. Ciao handles internal coordination, hiring, role balancing, performance, and delivery practices. You focus on business priorities and decisions, not resource orchestration.

Result: Your leadership team stays focused on growth, customers, and strategy instead of micromanaging an outsourced factory.

5. Flexibility without permanent headcount

SMEs need senior talent but can’t always justify permanent hires across all roles.

Traditional model: You either hire permanently (expensive, slow, risky if needs change) or buy fragmented contracting (hard to integrate, variable quality). Scaling up/down is messy.

Squad model: You get an immediately productive, senior‑heavy team without committing to long‑term headcount. When needs change, you can ramp squad size or pause more easily than you can restructure internal staff.

Result: Enterprise‑level capability with SME‑appropriate risk and cost structure.

6. Better alignment with complex, evolving projects

Large IT projects in SMEs often evolve mid‑flight due to changing strategy, new regulations, or customer feedback.

Traditional model: Fixed‑scope, waterfall-like contracts struggle with this. Change requests become expensive or adversarial. You end up either locked in or under‑building.

Squad model: Because squads work in agile, outcome‑driven cycles, change is expected. Roadmaps are revisited regularly. The relationship is ongoing, not tied to a frozen spec.

Result: The product can pivot as the business learns, which is particularly important in competitive or uncertain markets.

When “Squad as a Service” is not a better fit

It’s more effective than traditional outsourcing in many SME contexts, but not all. It’s often less ideal when:

• Work is very small, clearly scoped, and commoditized (e.g., a one‑off landing page, a basic brochure site).
• You have a strong in‑house product and engineering organisation and only need narrow staff augmentation (e.g., “one extra React developer for 3 months”).
• Procurement demands very rigid fixed‑price, fixed‑scope contracts that leave no room for iterative discovery.

In those scenarios, classic outsourcing or single‑contractor engagement may be more economical.

A simple mental model for SMEs

You can think of it this way:

• Traditional outsourcing: “I rent hours to execute to the technical and functional specifitations.”
• Squad as a Service: “I rent a product team that shares responsibility for outcomes.”

For larger IT projects inside an SME, that shift in responsibility, continuity, and product mindset is usually where most of the effectiveness gains come from.

Going further

Have a projet in mind that would require Squad as a Service? Contact us!