 started two years ago, but Anders had already vouched for a stronger software development culture for years. Previously, in-house team was not an option since the risk of being dependent on only a few people was too big. Anders wanted to change this and instead build a strong development culture. 

“We are not the first company to do this journey and we are definitely not the last one.” 

Anders, who has previously worked as a consultant, wanted to find a few suppliers who could meet his needs, both for technical competence but also for sharing knowledge. He started with one consultant from Crowd Collective, 

, and since then the teams has just been growing. 

“When Christofer told me that Crowd Collective consisted of not only smart and competent people, but that they also had the skills to onboard and coach colleagues, I felt very reassured. And it has turned out very well. That is one of the reasons that we have had a high growth with Crowd Collective consultants.“ 

It became clear that with a high growth pace, mentorship was needed. Anders needed a group of people that could take responsibility for building a framework for onboarding and coaching new colleagues. Crowd Collective consultants Christofer, Lina and Patrik took it upon their responsibility to do so. 

“We are trying to have a couple of different suppliers of consultancy services, but what stands out with Crowd Collective is the way that you have helped us with our growth and our mentorship models. Christofer, Lina and Patrik have played a huge part in getting to where we are today.” 

The Crowd Collective consultants has now taken responsibility for the frontend development, both from a technical perspective but also from a coaching perspective. This arrangement allows Elkjøp to grow with more junior and senior colleagues also in the future 

“Crowd Collective has been a great partner to us since we at the moment don’t have the senior resources ourselves.” 

The journey is not completed yet, if it ever will be. Over the next years, Elkjøp will continue to grow with more talented co-workers, both consultant and in-house. The scope for Anders teams is continuously growing, and more exciting technical challenges are heading their way.  

To be able to meet those needs, growth is crucial. From Anders perspective, it needs to be a balance of employees from external parts and recruitment. 

“In the future, it is our hope to do it a bit more on our own. And we will probably use the models and framework that Crowd Collective has put in place since it has worked our really well.” 

So far, 12 Crowd Collective consultants and 11 Academic Work consultants have worked at Elkjøp, co-creating great tech and culture. It’s exciting to see what the future holds!

Our client Elkjøp (Elgiganten in Sweden and Gigantti in Finland) is on a journey to create a strong in-house software development culture, where mentorship, team culture and team efficiency are key factors.

Building a strong development culture with Elkjøp Nordic 

Our client Elkjøp (Elgiganten in Sweden and Gigantti in Finland) is on a journey to create a strong in-house software development culture, where mentorship, team culture and team efficiency are key factors. Crowd Collective is a part of that journey, and we had a chat with Anders, Software Development Manager at Elkjøp, how he views our partnership of two years.

Case Elkjøp Nordic

1.	The fullstack unicorn you are waiting for isn’t coming

You’ve tried it all. From social media campaigns to headhunting. But that one full stack developer who can fix it all, just can’t be found. And in fact, that the unicorn you were looking for was never real in the first place. So now your product is suffering.

But what is real instead, is the number of junior talents with enormous potential looking for work. Talents who are eager to show their worth. All they ask for, is a chance and someone to help them develop their skills. 

2. Juniors have the potential to learn anything – and when coached, they learn fast

It’s not easy out there for a junior tech talent. They are constantly told by employers that they can’t be hired for their lack of experience. And they can’t get experience without being hired. This is discouraging when they are eager to prove themselves and find their place to grow.

For a responsible and forward-looking employer, they offer a golden opportunity to give a chance to someone who will truly appreciate it. And their eagerness makes them fast learners. 

To steepen their learning curve even more, and to focus their enthusiasm on the right things, they will need hands-on coaching. Coaching might seem like an extra burden, but it will help their development and engagement immensely – which in turn, will help your product and your business. 

3. Junior talents come with an open mind and new ideas

If there is a downside to experience, it is that you might become set in your ways and less inclined to explore new approaches to old problems. In some cases, the corporate world might even make you a bit cynical. 

With junior talents that isn’t the case. They are open minded, and because they lack predetermined ideas about solutions, they will approach challenges from various angles. 

It is not solely about the senior teaching the junior, but rather, they both learn from each other.  

4. With most of juniors fresh out of school, they have up to date skillsets

Junior talents do not need to be taught everything from scratch. Most juniors looking for work have recently graduated, and because of that they possess modern tech skills. 

What they lack is experience in applying those skills in a professional context. And that is what you as an employer can help them with. If you also provide them with a coach, they’ll pick up the contextual skills fast (see reason 1).

More and more businesses are concluding that in-house development teams are the way to go. Our experience shows that the sustainable and cost-efficient way to build a strong in-house team is to bring in junior talents and help them grow. 

To unlock the potential of junior talents, they require hands-on support. The optimal way to offer support is to provide juniors with the right amount of education, coaching and concrete tasks with varying levels of difficulty.

Growing new IT talent is a give and take kind of a relationship, and the more you put into it, the bigger wins you will receive. 

We at Crowd Collective have years of experience in building in-house competence for various companies. 

Read more about how we tackle the challenge!

“How to involve more junior talents in development projects?”

If you want to build a strong in-house development team, the most cost-efficient and sustainable way is to hire juniors and coach them into fully fledged professionals. Here are four reasons why. 

Junior developers are an underrated asset, but not for long – This is why you should act now

The value of junior IT professionals has been overlooked by companies for a long time. But now that attracting, hiring, and engaging senior developers is harder than ever, the potential that lies within junior IT talent is starting to gain interest.  

If you want to build a strong in-house development team, the most cost-efficient and sustainable way is to hire juniors and coach them into fully fledged professionals. Here are four reasons why.

Junior developers, an underrated asset

The first one is obvious: in order involve more junior developers somebody needs to hire them. Why not you? 

You can’t hire junior talents into more advanced roles, so you will need to create junior positions. Most junior developers are eager to both prove themselves and to learn more, so we believe that you will be positively surprised by how fast they will become valuable team members - especially with quality coaching.

A trainee program is a great way to bring in junior developers, especially if you need to hire new people regularly. You’ll be able to provide a structured environment where they will quickly acquire the necessary skills to become productive members of your development team. 

Creating, running, and maintaining a trainee program can, however, be expensive and time consuming. You will need dedicated coaches responsible for the program. Your team’s senior developers can act as instructors, but it will divert their attention away from their development duties. And if the trainee program isn’t designed or ran properly, it might prove to be ineffective.

3.	Get an entire team from Crowd Collective – and hire some of them 

A great option is to employ an entire team, including seniors and juniors, from Crowd Collective. Our senior consultants will have a dual role: they’ll function as coaches to the junior developers while simultaneously working as senior developers on your product. After a while, the senior consultants will leave, and you’ll be able to hire the fully on-boarded juniors into your team as official in-house employees. 

Our approach is flexible and can be tailored to your needs. Eg. You can bring us in to coach your already hired junior developers or you can hire our experienced consultants to help your senior team members become coaches themselves.

But no matter the specifics, we will help you bring in junior talents and turn them into fully fledged members of your in-house development team.

As is made clear above, proper coaching is essential in order to make the most of  junior tech talents’ potential. There are three ways to go about acquiring senior talents to act as a coach.

“Get a team of developers, hire some of them

We know that there is a serious lack of senior tech developers all over the world. And most of us also know that a crucial part of the solution is to hire junior talents and grow them into seniors.  But how to successfully do this is still unknown for most businesses.

How to involve more juniors in development projects?

We all know that there is a serious lack of senior developers all over the world. And most of us also know that a crucial part of the solution is to hire junior talents and grow them into seniors. 

But how to successfully do this is still unknown for most businesses. What they especially want to know, is how to get juniors involved in a way that won’t interfere with their short-term goals.

How to involve more juniors in dev projects?

How does the Crowd Collective approach work?

First, we need to understand what you are trying to achieve – both technically and functionally. 

There are many ways to do this, but how it usually goes is, that one of our senior Crowd Collective consultants comes in to familiarize themselves with your technical environment and the competences involved. 

The next thing is to define the competences your team needs – both short and the long-term. Our senior consultant will help you with this.

After that, we will bring in the junior team members. There are a few ways to go about acquiring junior talents:

Now it’s time start the work. Senior consultants, who function as coaches, will on-board the junior talents while simultaneously working on their individual tasks. The senior consultants will take ownership of keeping the juniors’ learning curve steep by using various methods of coaching and mentorship, such as:

After a while there comes a time, when there’s less of a need for our senior consultants. The project has become sustainable without outside help, and the junior talents have been fully on-boarded into all the aspects of their job. The senior Crowd Collective consultants have fulfilled their task and they will move on after giving a thorough handover. 

Congratulations! You now have new motivated and fully onboarded co-workers in your in-house IT team. 

It’s an approach, not a “one-size-fits-all” -process

This article has given you a rough overview of how we at Crowd Collective support companies in growing in-house IT talent. It is by no means a detailed description of what goes into this sort of a project, as each project and product is different. There are also many variables that come with different teams and businesses.

The core of our approach is our highly skilled consultants. They have high technical competence and the soft skills required to assess what needs to be done and how.

Do you wish to hear more about how this approach could support your company in growing highly competed IT talent for the future? 

 about approach to growing IT competence.

It’s a great way to gain competitive advantage by expanding your in-house dev team in a notoriously difficult recruitment market. Read on to find out, how we work.

Get a team of developers, hire some of them – the Crowd Collective way

“Get a team of developers and hire some of them.”

 That is the Crowd Collective way in a nutshell. 

It’s a great way to gain competitive advantage by expanding your in-house development team in a challenging recruitment market. Read on to find out, how we work.

We will help you form a team of developers, consisting of senior Crowd Collective IT consultants and junior IT talents, to work on your project. 

When we reach the point where it’s time for our senior consultants to leave, you can hire the fully onboarded and engaged juniors in your in-house IT team.

Read more about how we support companies in growing in-house competence >>

The Crowd Collective Way

I take pride in the projects I have been a part of and the teams I have worked with. I feel I have made a positive impact on products and people in my past assignments. There is still danger in comfort. Good enough becomes the new base line for performance if the project is progressing nicely and people around are happy.  

Fresh out of school everyone has dreams: You want to be a rock star software developer, the person who cured cancer, an astronaut. Mediocrity was never in your plans and good enough was not the target. Instead of sitting comfortably on ‘good enough’, you forgot that you can also be excellent? 

Lyssa Adkins’ book Coaching Agile Teams

 made me remember that in software development we are leading people, not processes. It also showed me what modern agile leadership looks like without the dysfunctionalities and command-and-controlism of project management structures from the past.  

I must admit that I am a natural sceptic when it comes to introducing “new revolutionary methods which will rock your world” but this book was convincing. It showed me that with providing the right kind of influence and framework any team can start elevating their game from good towards excellent, both as a team and as individuals. Let’s look at few morsels of insight which resonated with me the most: 

I used to be the problem solver. The one who looked for trouble and fixed it to guard the team from the exposure of the outside world. This left me in a constant state of stress and the team none the wiser about how to deal with the problematic situations. Through the teachings of the book, I learned that it is much more beneficial (and cheaper) to let the team recognise problems by themselves and find the solutions on their own. The team’s solution is most likely much better than what you would have come up with in any case.  

Who is better expert on the product than the team who is building it? If the problem remains unchecked, it is best to let the team fail than to save them from the consequences. Otherwise, there is a missed learning opportunity, and the team has not progressed any steps towards excellence. 

Simplistically said, the only input the functioning team needs to do its work is an answer to the question ‘What’. The ‘How’ and ‘When’ is up to the team to decide. Again, there is no one better to answer these questions than the team.  

This works in many levels of the team decision making. Product management feeds the team with the intended next right thing to do in form of prioritised user stories spiced with explanation why this is important and valuable thing to do right now. How this is done and when will it be ready is totally up to the team. The stakeholders want the development progress to be more visible? Let the team decide what to do with this information.  

This does not mean that all the work is unloaded to the team and you have more time to enjoy your coffee. This means that after every decision team makes independently, the team is better prepared for the next one. Again, more steps towards the excellence. 

I believe this is something many of you have heard before but for the first time I truly connect it to agile practices. Many times, you hear that an organisation is doing pseudo/ad-hoc/zombie-agile which is derived from bending and cherry-picking the seemingly best agile practices while ignoring others. This leaves the organisation with possibly functional project management tool without any of the benefits which makes agile great.  

 is a Japanese martial arts concept which describes the steps of learning towards mastery: Shu = Learn the rule, Ha = Break the rule, Ri = Be the rule.  

To make agile properly, or at all, you need to play by the rules. Not just some of the rules but all of them. When you have mastered the techniques playing by the rules, you can start breaking them to see what fits your team the best, learn and adapt. When you have found out that something else works for your team better you make is as a new rule for your team while keeping the original intent of the rule in mind. There is no shortcut to Ri, you have to Shu and Ha first. 

Not again this same old stuff… The funny thing is that everything explained in this book is tightly bound to the good old agile principles. But this time in a way it makes perfect sense. I have huge respect to the author of this book for bringing forth new angles and refreshing ideas on agile software development while binding it all repeatedly on the things already familiar to us all, the agile values, manifesto and principles. 

As you might have noticed, I enjoyed reading the book. It is a warm recommendation for everyone working on agile development. I surely learned a lot. 

Book review and learning by Senior Consultant Antti Peltosaari

Thank you, Lyssa Adkins, for reminding me again what is important 

You know the feeling when you look at your earlier professional life in the rear-view mirror and see all the things you would do differently with the knowledge and experience you possess now — do it better?

Lyssa Adkins book review

Right now, Cristofer is recruiting his first consultants and looking for partnerships together with well chosen clients. The ideal client from Cristofer's perspective is likeminded and understands that developers want more than tickets and building feature by feature. He want's to partner up with clients who want developers to understand their business because this is a key factor to building a great product or platform.

Do you want to know more about what Cristofer is building and what he is looking for, both from a client and recruitment perspective? Have a look at the video!

Interested in joining the Malmö Crowd? Read more 

Welcome to the tech scene in Malmö, Crowd Collective! Cristofer Fridh is starting up our office in Malmö, and we could not be more happy about it!

Crowd Collective is growing – New office in Malmö!

Welcome to the tech scene in Malmö, Crowd Collective! 

 is starting up our fourth office in Malmö, and we could not be happier about it! 

A person who truly understands the mixture of focus on the client and the Crowd Collective employee side, and how to build a people first company.

New office in Malmö

“I have always been creative, but on the other hand also very focused on technical challenges. When I started studying in Norrköping, computer graphics immediately caught my attention and I realized that this would be the perfect combination of tech and creativity for me”

After university, Jesper started to work as a consultant, but didn’t really get the projects he was aiming for. He joined Crowd Collective and after just a short period of time he popped the idea of creating a Visualization Crowd. We are always encouraging ideas that will help us grow and develop as a company, so it is safe to say that Linköpings Managing Director Carl Johansson loved the idea. 

With Jesper as a driving force, they started to develop the foundation for what we hope will become our visualization crowd. Both Jesper and Carl strongly believe that visualization is a growing area of expertise, which will continue to expand to different fields. 

Right now, Jesper is working at Smart Eye where he develops a simulator in Unity, which produces so called synthetic data by simulating a driver monitoring camera system in a car as realistically as possible. 

“In this assignment I really get the opportunity to dig deeper into both my technical and creative skills. Also, in the car industry the process of collecting data is costly and time consuming, so to help a company be cost efficient and at the same time make the roads safer for everyone out there brings value to both my skills and my heart.” 

The future for Crowd Collective and our visualization crowd looks bright, and we are looking for more people to join us, to start working as a crowd for real! If you have an analytical mindset, a technical foundation, a creative mind and an eye for details - this might be the crowd for you. 

We currently have 3 colleagues working with this in Linköping, so if this journey sounds interesting, just reach out - we got you.

Crowd Collective is proudly a part of Visual Sweden

Crowd Collective x Visual Sweden

Crowd Collective is proudly a part of Visual Sweden - an organization that gather companies in Sweden who are working with visualization and image analysis. 

, one of our brilliant consultants in Linköping, has ambitious plans for the future and what kind of co-operation we might be able to have in the future. For him, visualization is the perfect combination of creativity and tech.

Like many others, I started my career working parallel to my studies during my last year in university. In the beginning I worked with a .NET stack and then later moved on to work with various JavaScript frameworks. After six years of working solely as a developer, I joined Crowd Collective where I today work as a Senior Lead Consultant in our 

I want to lead with saying that I love code and I don’t see myself working in a role that would not include hands on coding. But being proficient in different tech stacks and being able to solve tech heavy problems is not enough anymore. The value of soft skills in undeniable. 

Back in the days the tech department was in the corner doing computer stuff, separated from other functions and separated from the core of business. Now that everything is digital, tech is the heart of organisations, and it is crucial to be able to combine technology with business. 

Soft skills such as communication skills, being a team player, understanding different people and their roles, coaching and kindness come in handy when you have a diverse team of talent working together to create business value using tech. 

So, expanding my stack from pure tech to soft skills felt motivating and very necessary. Now that I have worked in roles such as Team Lead and Tech Lead that require more soft skills, I have a clearer view of who I am as a developer and much more confidence in myself.  

For me, the biggest impact in developing my soft skills was having great people around me. When I started at Crowd Collective in 2017, I got my own mentor. She pushed me in the right direction and challenged me to explore sides of myself I didn’t know existed. It made me step out of my comfort zone. I think that having a great mentor really unleashed a ton of potential in me. 

Also getting the opportunity to work in Team Lead and Tech Lead positions in various client projects helped a lot, since I was able to develop my soft skills in practise.  

So great mentoring and the ability to learn by doing, plus having an environment that promotes personal development and knowledge sharing peer-to-peer has been a huge support in acquiring new skills. 

Soft skills and future career opportunities  

Right now, I just want to continue doing what I do. It is very rewarding to have the opportunity to gather knowledge and experience between projects. There are many learnings that can be brought to future projects and soft skills are a big part of that. I know I still have a lot to learn. 

By developing my own soft skills, I have understood how much it drives me to see other people succeed. In the future I would love to work even more with mentoring and supporting others in their growth journeys – still always keeping one foot in the code 😉

The value of soft skills in tech is undeniable. This is the story of how I acquired soft skills to my stack during my +10 years in software development – and why. 

Frontend Developer Rasmus: How I acquired soft skills to my stack

 and this is the story of how I acquired soft skills to my stack during my +10 years in software development – and why.

How I acquired soft skills to my stack

For me, soft skills are business critical if you want to stay relevant for both your employees and your customers and clients. The society of today is driven by technical innovation and if you want to take it to the next level, soft skills are extremely needed.

Linda talks about soft skills from two perspectives - business and employees. 

To succeed as a consultant company, Linda does believe that it comes down to the people in your company. The ability to work as a team, active listening, creativity and emotional intelligence are a few of the most important soft skills that Linda sees in our consultants today. 

Some people might think that soft skills are something “new” in the IT industry. It’s not. The way of working has changed during the last decades, and the way of working in an agile context makes greater demands on our soft skills. But it’s not something revolutionising, however something extremely important. 

The agile way of working comes with teamwork. You need to be able to work with different departments, different teams and different people. Tech is not just a department anymore, tech is everywhere. And therefore, excellent communication skills, sense of responsibility and kindness in vital to stay relevant as a company.

From an employee perspective, soft skills are important to make sure that people are heard, seen and respected. To create an inclusive workplace where people take time to help each other does not come for free and it does take time, but it is worth every hour. Nothing happens by happy accidents, you need to work with your culture and your people, and of course hire people who share these values. 

You can show your soft skills in different way - not everyone has to be a public speaker, be the funniest woman at the office or always be the facilitator of meetings. By sharing our view of soft skills and always trying to both become a better version of yourself and help others to do the same, you will always have a place at Crowd Collective.

Our Crowds are a great way of creating the sense of belonging and a place where the soft skills in our teams are clearly shown. This is a place for knowledge sharing, challenging each other's ideas and expressing your opinion. A safe space, where you are seen, heard and listened to, and a place that can build trust and community. 

The most important soft skills, if you ask Linda, are taking responsibility, the ability to work in teams and emotional intelligence. And of course, to be kind. Always.

Why does it take soft skills to build great tech?

Managing Director Linda Bergqvist - “Soft skills are old, but gold” 

 started building Crowd Collective Linköping, our second office in Sweden, in 2021 together with Carl Johansson. Since October 2022, Linda has been the Managing Director of Crowd Collective Stockholm. And since forever – she's been an advocate for soft skills in the tech industry.

Soft skills are old but gold

At Crowd Collective, we are organized in Crowds. For us, this means that we have a design crowd, and everyone who is interested and/or skilled within the field are joining in on meetings and discussions. Once a week we have what we call Design Fridays, a time for us to rubber duck problems, talk about trends, share articles and stories from our projects. It’s a great feeling to have multiple minds instead of just my own. I always feel seen, heard and listened to during our meetings. 

And it’s not just the Design Fridays. The Design Crowd has worked on various projects together, where they have been able to get to know each other and the competence that the entire team possesses. They have been a part of our delivery towards Birds Relations (

 and during the spring of 2022, they have designed our website together as a part of our rebranding (

If this tickles your mind, read more here

 has been a great opportunity for us to get to know each other and our skills. The knowledge sharing is something that I can bring to my project at my client, and by that make sure that my team gets to share my Crowd Collective colleagues knowledge as well.

For Mathilda, having a crowd has not only given her more insights, skills and the ability to share more knowledge at her client project. It’s also an opportunity to meet colleagues and share energy on a daily basis. The life as a consultant might feel lonely if you switch projects often, but when you have your crowd, you always have a sense of belonging according to Mathilda. 

When you switch context and project as a consultant, it’s always a period of getting to know new colleagues. So to have your own crowd and your “home” while still being able to meet new challenges is the best combination for me! 

It’s no secret that Mathilda enjoys life at Crowd Collective. She says that it’s all about the people that spreads energy and a great vibe. 

If you like sharing knowledge, feel supported and support others, have a sense of community and that amazing feeling that you are never alone - you should 

As we know, the UX field is broad, and to be an expert in every part of the UX field is nearly impossible. To have a crowd of skilled colleagues has therefore been amazing from her perspective.

Knowledge sharing, supporting each other and a great Crowd – and there are room for more people! 

 has grown her skills within the UX area over the last 4 years. Her favorite part of the job is the creative process and the possibility to create something visual and concrete from ideas and thoughts. As we know, the UX field is broad, and to be an expert in every part of the UX field is nearly impossible. To have a crowd of skilled colleagues has therefore been amazing from her perspective.

UX talent Mathilda calls The Design Crowd her home

Mathilda's career story

Traits like communicational skills, emotional intelligence and ability to work in a team are what we call soft skills. Soft Skills are growing more and more important as the lack of [more senior] IT resources is making it harder for companies to invest in digital solutions. 

“What companies and the IT industry desperately need right now are people who work with hands-on tech, and who are willing and capable of sharing that knowledge further to more junior colleagues.”

Junior IT talents are huge contributors to any team, since most of them are eager to learn and explore new ways of working and have a high learning capacity. But to be able to utilize that drive, energy and passion you need to have a plan for introduction, mentorship and learning.  

That is why soft skills are the skills to hire right now. 

Soft skills bring a new layer of purpose to what we do 

Our Crowd Collective consultants want to be a part of closing the IT skills gap. They share a passion towards utilizing IT juniors and helping them grow into talented and engaged colleagues.  

Focusing on soft skills and mentorship, means focusing on growing long-lasting talent in addition to building great tech. That brings a new layer of purpose to what we do. 

Why are developers interested in soft skills? 

Working on soft skills means great future career opportunities. If one wishes to become a leader of any kind, having a solid track record of working as a mentor and developing your soft skills matters.  

“We provide our consultants with a safe environment to grow and reach the next level of their careers. This means that you do not need to be a full-fledged leader to join us. We look for willingness to develop and potential to grow into a role that requires more than pure excellence in tech.”

Our consultants are surrounded by people who share their growth mindset and a passion towards becoming not only better at tech, but also developing as a coach, mentor, and leader. 

During our five years, we have gone from 0 to over 100 colleagues in Sweden and Finland. What we as recruiters have learned is that experienced IT talent still want to be great at their field of tech, but they also have a hunger towards expanding their scope and tackling bigger challenges.  

Focusing on soft skills and growing into a mentor, a coach, and a leader feeds that hunger.

Soft skills like emotional intelligence and communicational skills play a crucial part within tech. Here's why!

Tech recruiters: soft skills are the skills to hire right now! 

Maiju Virta and Julia Beard, two of our tech recruiters at Crowd Collective, are extremely skilled in finding and recruiting the tech talent that everyone is looking for. That is because they focus on soft skills. Let us explain how this equation works.

Why soft skills are the skills to hire?

 as we like to call him, has been a developer for 15 years, a consultant for 7, and a member of Crowd Collective since the beginning of 2022. The last couple of years, he has been focusing on roles as an Agile Coach, Scrum Master and Team Lead. Coding is still a part of his work, but his interest in work processes and agile thinking has grown. 

“I think I have been taking on these roles since I’ve always had the ambition to improve the way we work in projects. If I see possible improvements, why shouldn’t I raise my voice and see if this can make it easier for both me and my colleagues?” 

The willingness and drive to coach others has grown since Andy started working as a consultant and has really grown exponentially for him the last 4 years. That is one reason why Crowd Collective feels like the right place for him. But not the only one. 

Since Andy has been a consultant for many years, it had to be something special on the table for him to join a new company. He had different offers and discussions open but didn’t really feel that it was enough. And then he met Linda, MD and founder of Crowd Collective Linköping. 

“We just clicked during our first meeting. There is something special about her. Her energy, her kindness and her high engagement and passion for this company. This topped all the other offers I got. Money can’t buy you the feeling of community and sense of belonging.” 

After a couple of meetings, Andy was sold on the idea about Crowd Collective Linköping and the workplace that he would be a part of creating. 

“It’s been a complete joy to be a part of starting up Crowd Collective in Linköping. The energy from Linda spreads to the rest of us, and it is easy to share that feeling with our clients and colleagues. It generates warmth and honesty, something I have never felt so strongly before.” 

It’s been important for Andy to create the same experience for his new colleagues as he had, and a big part of that is getting together. For Andy, this means both physically but also to be involved in decision making processes. 

“When we create psychological trust, everybody is comfortable with raising their voice.”

At the Linköping office, there are a lot of different interests. Someone loves CrossFit, another one has a passion for baking and a third one (Andy) is a photographer. They are generous in sharing their skills and invite everyone to join. 

“It does not matter if you have been working for five months or signed your contract yesterday, everyone is always welcome! On Tuesdays we train CrossFit together with Linda and we share the pain from working out on Wednesdays!” 

The Linköping office will continue to grow, and Andy wants all his future colleagues to feel the same community as he does today. From his point of view, this will happen if Crowd Collective continues to focus on soft skills and tech skills combined and continue to be picky when it comes to recruiting new colleagues. 

“Our goal is not to grow to 100 consultants in two years. We will grow slowly and focus on the combination of soft skills and tech skills. We are still a pretty small company in Linköping, but looking ahead, I think that we will be the talk of the town. For those who wants to combine their soft skills with technical skills, this will be the place to be.” 

After 15 years of working as a developer, this is what Andy seeks in his employer. And no, money isn't it.

The talk of the town in Linköping, where culture and community triumphs money

Andy's career story

A big part in building trust is something that is hard to put into words, at least for me. It is something that has to do with intuition and what kind of person you as a mentor are. Yet there are many concrete things I have found to be useful and therefore wanted to share.  

The first step is simple: get to know the person you are mentoring 

When a new junior talent starts their assignment, I like to take time to sit down just them and I to chat about who they are and general topics of interest. Their self-confidence, expectations and how eager they are to try new things impact the mentoring pace. How fast can they be thrown into the deep end? 

Understanding their level of competence and what skills they would like to develop going forward is also very important. Even though we might usually start out with more familiar tech to feel the sense of pride and accomplishment, a shared vision of the way forward is important. When their confidence grows, new areas of tech will be explored based on their own interests. 

How I start building trust is by highlighting the fact that it is my job to be the mentor and answer their questions. It might sound a bit strange but, in my experience, this makes it much easier for the junior to reach out to me as frequently as needed. When they understand that I am not supporting them just to be nice or in addition to my daily work, they are more prone to rely on me. 

Another thing I like to emphasize in the beginning is that I too am a regular person who just happens to have more experience in this specific field that we work in. I am not special or a better human being in any way. I am an equal colleague who also makes mistakes. I can probably support in more challenging tech problems, but when it gets really tricky, we most likely need to find solutions together. 

Giving feedback and learning how to ask questions 

Giving feedback consistently, kindly, and constructively is a big part of growing new tech talent and building trust. In the beginning I focus on explaining why things are done a certain way, why that is the best solution. Quite quickly I will move towards a more coaching approach where instead of giving already thought-out answers, I give options and start asking the junior questions like: why would this solution be better than the other one?  

Some of our stories