8 Check Boxes To Tick Before Hiring The Right Developers
These days the Google searches are all flooded with the paid ads from design and development companies who are aggressively bidding on search queries to convince you to choose them.
It means, now you need to be more cautious while outsourcing the development for your dream product. In this post, you will learn what you need to see in a development agency before hiring them.
Here are 8 points you need to check while outsourcing the development for your startup:
1. Don’t Hunt For The Cheapest
Never make your decision considering the price alone. Cheaper is rarely the best choice out there; let the product and the quality of their previous work decide the price for the job.
Also don’t forget to keep an eye on your own budget constraints: more expensive does not always means better quality!
2. Location Matters
The location of the development agency plays a major role when it comes to the project development and its growth. Shortcomings can be detrimental to the process and affect overall growth of your business.
3. Don’t Rush, Be Calm
Don’t rush to hire an agency just because you want the product live as soon as possible.
Getting the project done early is good, but it also needs to be fully functional. And to have the best product in hand, you need to extensively examine its developers first.
Schedule a meeting, make some phone calls, and meet them in person!
That is where the local developers have an edge over overseas agencies and freelancers. You can schedule a meeting at a local co-working space or at their office; because you both can afford to meet in person.
4. Research Research Research
Hiring developers from freelancing sites are risky: you usually can’t predict the authenticity of their so-called shiny ‘Star Ratings’.
Maybe they were good for someone’s ‘Tic Tac Toe’ game and deserved a 5-star rating, but might not be the best choice for your custom e-commerce mobile app.
5. Communication Is The Key
How are they communicating during the hiring process? How frequently are they replying to your messages and phone calls?
Are they giving inputs? If they are not active during the hiring process, how can you expect them to be during the development?
Notice, how they are counter discussing things with you on the project. See if they have any inner spark or interest in your business or idea. Or, is it “just another project” for them?
6. Start Simple, Improve On The Way
It is human tendency to want and try to achieve the best of the best result on day one. But this shouldn’t be the case with your Web/App or SaaS product development.
It is always better to start simple and progressively improve towards the end product.
Developing an app isn’t a one-time activity. It needs continuous iteration and improvements based on the feedbacks of end users.
7. Ask For Prototypes
Ask the developers if they are willing to do a prototype first if the app is too complex.
This also gives you the opportunity to assess their work before launching the main project.
8. Make Your Agreement Water Tight
You need a trustworthy team of developers before disclosing or explaining your startup idea or business model.
To rescue you out from this dilemma, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) comes in.
Get the NDA signed! For the sake of peace of mind.
You can ask the development team to provide their NDA template or you can download our template for free from webisoft.com.
Some of the terms you should include in your NDA to bound the agency and it’s employees:
- Can’t work on similar domain or idea for the next 2 years
- Can’t work with your competitors (name them!)
- Can’t share or reuse your code or its parts
- Can’t start another company using your idea
TL;DR
I knew that most of us are too lazy to read it all 😉. Here’s the skimmable infographic of the post.
Note: This post was first published on the Webisoft Blog.
About The Author
Azman Nabi is the founder of Brandulge and growth marketer at Webisoft. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram.
