9 Steps to Find the Right Company to Build Your App
Are you running a successful business and want to take it to the next level or you’ve got an idea for a new mobile or web app and you don’t have a team of UI/UX designers and developers at hand?
In this case you have probably started to look for a development agency, but your main concern is choosing the best suited development studio for your needs.
Nowadays you may find thousands of website/app design and development agencies but you need to do your homework before jumping in to choose one.
Over the time, we have met a lot of people like you and we believe we can give you some useful tips. We decided to put together a guide on finding a partner agency that will build the desired app for you. Yes, we are a DIGITAL PRODUCT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIO and with this article we want to improve the process on both sides. Believe it or not, in order for development process to run smoothly, it’s just as important for an agency to work with the right clients.
Here are some tips to ensure you’ll end up with the right app development agency:
1. Do your homework
First you need to know what you want to accomplish. Assuming that you have some technical background, you might also want to establish the technology stack you would prefer or need. We definitely have full capability to help you make the best decision here as well. Our architects can run you over a kickstart process and will guide you to choose the right tech stack depending on your product needs.
2. What skill sets are you looking in an agency partner?
Once you have elaborated your requirements and identified your needs, you probably have an idea what to look for in an agency. There are couple of major skill sets required to build and run a successful mobile or web app: strategy, design, development and business execution.
3. Ask your network for referrals and recommendations
The best place to start looking for potential partners is through your network.. Ask them to recommend you an agency that they have worked with and would pick again for future projects. As an added bonus, they might also be able to give you some advice based on their own experience.
4. Do your research
At this point you should have a list of potential vendors. The next step in the process is to do some research by going through their portfolios to check if their expertise matches your needs. Once you find something in their portfolio that you’re interested in, you can contact them and ask for more details. You can also get some insight about projects they’ve worked on that aren’t probably in their portfolio due to privacy constraints and find out how they’ve handled them.
5. Get into details
Don’t worry about going into details. Ask them how they managed to solve a challenge similar to yours and how much time they needed to accomplish that. At this point you need to be ultra selective. Also, you need to make sure that your budget matches their expectations. There are situations where some agencies might agree to work for less just to get the project. If they’re not entirely satisfied with the amount, it will become visible at some point since they might not be fully invested. You can avoid this by asking for an offer before specifying your budget.
6. Experts have arguments
Now that you have an idea whom you want to work with, you should keep in mind that you are hiring a development agency for its expertise. There is no reason for you not to hear them out and take into account their opinion and suggestions regarding your app development.If you’ve done your homework and you’re now confident with your decision, you need to keep in mind that the people working on your app have its best interest in mind. If the project is successful, it benefits both parties. Once the project is profitable and generates revenue, you might want to extend the contract so as to maintain and add more functionalities to the app.
7. Budget
If your budget doesn’t match the agency’s expectations, don’t be afraid to go overseas to find the best match for the project. A development studio may charge you 70–200$/ hour and if you can’t afford that, you’ll find alternatives at half the price overseas.You’ll want to make sure that they are professional and that their level of English is not gonna be a communication barrier.
8. Don’t make sacrifices
When it comes to paying for services, there is always a cheaper option out there. That doesn’t always mean poor quality services, but most often you’ll get what you pay for. Don’t sacrifice quality for price, especially not on the things that matter. Make sure that the engineers assigned to your project are capable of accomplishing your request flawlessly without making you nervous and have you spend even more money in the end to fix their mistakes.
9. You need to decide
After you analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the agencies you have engaged with, weigh the costs and benefits of going in a particular direction. You want to make sure that you get the best value for your money.
Final thoughts
Trust is the most important element of any relationship. That’s why we like to paint the entire process of searching for a partner. A mature partner will seek to help you to leverage whatever makes you different while simultaneously offsetting some of the risks that you would have faced by doing it alone. We’re in it for the long run.
Good luck!
Originally published at mcro.tech.
