Can we nearshore a complex product development to Portugal?

Many organisations already use nearshore models to speed up projects, gain access to talent and control costs, but a question often arises: is this model suitable for developing complex products, or is it only suitable for more operational tasks?

The answer is yes, provided that the model, the partner and the form of collaboration are designed to support strategic product decisions, and not just technical execution.

But what is a complex product? When we talk about complex products, we are referring to solutions that:

• Have multiple components or microservices, with various integrations.
• Require constant decisions regarding architecture and technological evolution.
• Involve business stakeholders, design teams, operations and support.
• Require continuous development cycles and frequent releases, without compromising quality.

In these contexts, the partner in Portugal cannot limit itself to providing technical profiles. It is essential to have a?team that understands the business, takes part in product decisions, and can share responsibility for outcomes.

There are several factors that make Portugal particularly attractive for this type of project:

• Skilled talent in software engineering Mature technical communities, experience in international projects and a strong ecosystem in areas such as cloud computing, data, APIs, digital platforms and reliability engineering.
• Cultural affinity and modern working practices Teams accustomed to agile methodologies, hybrid/remote working and collaboration with international stakeholders, which facilitates governance, alignment and communication.
• Time zone and geographical proximity to Europe Enables real-time meetings, agile ceremonies with distributed teams and more fluid product management throughout the day.
• Experience in long-term collaboration models Rather than one-off projects, it is common to have dedicated teams, which become natural extensions of the clients’ internal teams.

This model tends to make the most sense when:

• The company already has a product that is gaining traction and needs to scale its development capacity without losing control.
• There are clear needs for specific skills (e.g. cloud architecture, data engineering, security, mobile, DevOps) that are difficult to recruit locally.
• The roadmap is demanding, with several parallel streams (new features, modernisation, integrations, continuous improvement).
• The organisation wants to balance proximity to the product team with cost efficiency, without opting for time zones that are too far apart.

Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, it is possible to combine various models, depending on the product’s stage and the organisation’s maturity:

Expansion of the product team Senior and mid-level roles that join the existing team (Product Owner, Tech Lead, Developers, QA, DevOps), with clear responsibilities and active involvement in defining solutions.

Dedicated team in Portugal A cross-functional team (e.g. front-end, back-end, QA, DevOps) responsible for a set of specific product modules, domains or workflows.

Specialist expertise at critical junctures Involvement of architects, security specialists, data engineers or SREs for solution design, migration, performance optimisation or resilience enhancement phases.

Most importantly, the model is not limited to the allocation of personnel, but is underpinned by processes, engineering practices and shared governance.

Working with a team in another country is not without its challenges. Some of the most common are:

• Lack of alignment with the product If the team in Portugal is viewed merely as a “code factory”, it tends to become detached from the business context. This can be mitigated by involving them in discovery, refinement, roadmap reviews and goal-setting.
• Communication and expectation gaps It is essential to agree from the outset on how decisions are shared, how requests are prioritised and how success is measured (OKRs, SLAs, product and engineering metrics).
• Reliance on knowledge held by a few individuals Complex projects require documentation practices, healthy rotation within the team, structured onboarding and a significant investment in knowledge transfer.

With the right partner, these risks can be addressed proactively and integrated into the way the team works.

When entrusting the development of a complex product to a team in Portugal, certain factors are key:

• Proven experience in long-term projects, with products in production.
• The ability to combine technical and product roles (e.g. Product Owners, Business Analysts, Tech Leads).
• Maturity in engineering practices: CI/CD, automated testing, observability, security, incident management.
• A governance model that includes transparent reporting, oversight by a local manager, and clear coordination with the client’s leadership.
• A culture of proximity and collaboration, in which the team is treated as part of the same product rather than as a separate entity.