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Otherside at Work develops Xpert Suite, a platform that runs on large amounts of privacy-sensitive data. Customers expect the software to be secure, stable, and user-friendly. At the same time, you want engineering teams to have room to innovate and make decisions that improve the product. Especially in our current growth phase, an important question arises: how do you give teams autonomy while working in a domain full of regulations?
Roel van der Sanden (Chief Product Officer) and Stef Roskam (Chief Technology Officer) explain how we handle this.
A growing organization naturally becomes more formal
When an organization is small, processes are often less dominant. The people working on the product know the user inside out and can more easily adjust things.
Roel: “When you’re just a few people, everyone stretches their way of working if it benefits the user. You see what’s needed and you do it.”
Otherside at Work is in a growth phase. With ten to twelve teams, the dynamics change. Teams look for structure, clear agreements, and boundaries. That’s logical, but not without risks.
Roel continues: “As you grow, there’s a tendency to stay very precisely within the lines. Everyone feels that a solution isn’t ideal, but due to all the constraints it seems like there’s no alternative.”
Stef sees the same development more broadly: “Something goes wrong, so a new rule is added. Something else goes wrong, another rule. If you do that eighty times, at some point you can hardly move.”
Roel calls it the scar tissue of an organization: “Strong protection in places where something once went wrong, but your skin becomes less flexible. And flexibility is exactly what you need to keep making good software.”
The balance between content and process
In larger organizations, process thinkers often dominate. Not because processes are wrong, but because people who are good at organizing and documenting naturally end up in crucial roles. As a result, the focus sometimes shifts too much toward ticking boxes.
Roel: “The question is no longer: is this good for the user? But: have we followed all the steps? You can interview two users and neatly complete your checklist, but that doesn’t automatically make the product better.”
Processes are necessary for reliable work, but they don’t solve the underlying content. As Roel puts it:
“Designing software is more like designing clothing and not like cooking. It only works with people who have a sense of taste. You can’t fully capture it in checklists or recipes. It’s about truly understanding your users’ work, why they do what they do. That’s why we consciously look for teams that don’t just follow the process but can reason about the content and understand what users really want and what truly helps them.”
Working with privacy-sensitive data requires clear boundaries
That creative and content-driven space always exists within firm privacy and security boundaries. Since Xpert Suite contains sensitive data, there are strict security measures that are never up for discussion.
Stef: “We create a technical environment where it’s clear what is and isn’t allowed. This relates to privacy, security, and legal requirements. Within those boundaries you can move freely, outside them, you can’t.”
Roel: “The first reflex with privacy-sensitive data is to lock everything down. But you also need to keep developing. Sometimes something is possible, if handled in a controlled way. That requires someone who can reason based on risk: why does this measure exist, and is it still appropriate? And if we want something different, can it be done safely?”
Feedback and monitoring ensure autonomy remains safe
When teams receive more freedom, you also need to ensure quality remains guaranteed. We do this by creating feedback moments that quickly and objectively show what is being built.
Stef: “With tools like Sigrid, we continuously monitor code quality, maintainability, and security risks. Teams get direct feedback on what they build. This improves the work, but also ensures that autonomy doesn’t come at the expense of safety.”
In addition, there is always an independent review before anything goes to production, and bug bounties and pentests are carried out regularly. This gives teams freedom, while knowing there’s always a safety net that catches issues early.
Staying close to users
Beyond technical quality, contact with users is crucial. It prevents assumptions and helps teams understand why something does or doesn’t work.
Roel: “Some things you only learn by directly talking to customers. You don’t always know how something is used or what the impact of a change will be. That’s why we encourage teams to validate regularly, even though we have a lot of domain knowledge internally. Nothing replaces contact with real users.”
How AI helps teams work faster, and the limits we set
AI is increasingly part of software development. It helps us work faster, but only when used carefully.
Roel: “In the hands of an experienced engineer or designer, AI can be incredibly helpful: generating test data, structures, or background information. But it takes expertise to judge whether it’s correct.”
Stef points to recent research at Tilburg University suggesting that senior developers sometimes spend more time: “AI generates code quickly, but not always good code. Seniors need to check it, and that costs time.”
That’s why we constantly evaluate where AI adds value and monitor its effect on code quality.
Agility without chaos
Beyond content, safety, and tooling, one thing is essential for high-performance teams: being able to adapt when necessary. A roadmap is not a fixed plan but a direction.
Roel: “It’s like sailing. You know where you want to go, but the wind determines the course. You must be able to adjust when your understanding of the user, the law, or circumstances changes.”
The key is that it doesn’t feel arbitrary: “Teams need to understand why something moves forward or backward. You’re only truly agile when everyone feels that together.”
What we expect from engineers (and what customers can expect)
Engineers who want to work at Otherside at Work must not only be technically strong but also curious, communicative, and content-driven.
Roel: “You need to enjoy in-depth discussions, even when there’s no straightforward answer. And you must get energy from making thousands of users happy. That requires care, because a wrong judgment directly impacts many people’s daily work.”
For customers, our way of working means we ask thorough questions. Not to be difficult, but to truly understand the problem they want to solve.
“A request may sound simple: ‘I want an extra button.’ But only when we understand why can we ensure it works well in the long term.”
Contact
Xpert Suite is an innovative, data-driven portal for occupational health and social security. The portal is suitable for employees, managers, HR professionals, occupational physicians, delegated authorities, and insurers. Each user gets their own access, fully tailored to their specific needs.
Want to know more about Xpert Suite? Get in touch with us.