5 Things you should ask yourself before hiring a Digital Tech Agency
Often we hear people say something like:
I need a website. We should build an app for that. It’s a platform that we need.
But they have not thought about the how, the what, the why and the when. Most of the time the belief is that nowadays, businesses cannot survive without an online presence in the form of a digital app. Living in the digital age, this is more often true than not. But it’s a waste to just pour money into a black development hole before deciding what you want or rather what the customer wants. The result is that you end up with a digital app that does not fit the needs of the customer.
True marketing starts… with the customer, his demographics, his realities, his needs, his values. It does not ask, “What do we want to sell?” It asks, “What does the customer want to buy?” — Peter Drucker
There are many definitions out there of what a website or application exactly is so just that we understand each other: a digital app refers to anything from a website, application to a platform and everything in between.
We summed up 5 questions to ask yourself before deciding which digital tech agency to hire. These are also guidelines when you are already talking to several agencies. Those who really help you answer these questions are usually the ones who can provide the most value during the whole process.
Did you validate your idea with end-users?
For what purpose do you want a digital app is the first question you need to answer. There are different points of view regarding why this question is relevant. In this case, it is about idea validation. Validating that your solution is solving a problem for people that actually want to use your service and potentially want to pay for it. Make data-driven decisions instead of opinion-driven ones. Not every business is profit driven so non-paying users is fine, as long as the service is proven to be wanted by customers.
For most businesses, the investment in a digital app is a significant one. Therefore we always advice when potential clients come to us with a new concept, to start for example with a landing page and test for idea validation. We used this method for one of our own products and this turned out to be a huge success. You can read more about how we did that here. It’s a 4 min read on how an idea was validated, build and eventually led to a partnership with one of the biggest payment providers in Europe.
Do you really need all the features?
It comes down to knowing why you want to build a web app. Then it is always good to consult with experts on how to do it since there are many ways that lead to Rome. A good example of this is when Story of AMS was approached to build an app so that customers could communicate with the business and place orders. Ultimately the app would become quite complex and we suggested they looked at their current data first. Via which channel were the most orders placed. Do we really need to build a completely new environment to offer the best customer experience? It turned out that we could cancel many of the functionalities and integrate an existing platform into the application, saving the client lots of money. There is no need to reinvent the wheel or start from scratch. There are many integrations available that work really well and often cost a fraction of the money involved in building from scratch.
Look for a partner that thinks WITH you. Everything is possible, but not everything is adding value for the end-user.
Will your digital app be able to grow with your business?
It may not always be the primary goal of the business but eventually, you want to pursue some form of growth. Be it in revenue, customers, traffic or some other metric. Then when the investment is made to upgrade the digital part of the business, it should be able to offer agile elements and grow with the needs of the business. Scalability is key. A new digital app requires a significant investment of resources so you want something that is able to grow with the business. This is an important question because it forces you to think in what phase your business is in. Look for example at the following graph:
Its good to know in which phase your business is in because each phase has different asset allocations. In the maturity phase, there is probably more budget for a new digital app which loads of functionalities whereas in the introduction phase a simple landing page will suffice. In the Growth phase, the amount of traffic to the digital app will increase fast. In the decline phase the content of your digital app could play a major role. Every case is different.
Again, the right partner could make a lot of difference in making the best choices for your business.
What’s your price range?
This is a no-brainer. It is important to work with a budget. There are many ways agencies calculate the cost involved in a project. We always advise to ask for a total project price with the deliverables specified. Good agencies can work with a budget and then give you advice on what’s possible. Even more important when there is limited budget available, they can tell you on what elements to compromise while still being able to deliver what you want.
Then there is the difference between the smaller and bigger agencies. Both have its pros and cons. For example in terms of agility. Smaller ones tend to have more manoeuvrability while bigger agencies stick to what has originally been agreed upon. While a big agency has a lot of experience and is better able to foresee any bears on the road. The price charged also tend to go up with the years of experience.
What’s your time-frame?
To prevent situations where a project is dragging on endlessly decide on a time-frame. Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law. The bigger the project, the more stakeholders are involved which can cause delays in the development process. Therefore we advise taking some room for error into account.
Nevertheless, for everyone’s agenda its good to know when the project is going to be delivered. During the project, make sure that you as a client are kept in the loop of what has been done and what still needs to be done. When knowing your own time-frame, ask how the agency you are interviewing with manages a project. Is there a person you can turn to for questions? Will there be updates? What happens when the deadline is not going to be met? All important things to consider to ensure a smooth cooperation between client and agency.
With you instead of for you
In the end, you should find an agency that really thinks with you about the project. You want them to share their expertise and provide grounded advice instead of hearing what you have to say and just build on the idea of what it should look like.
If you are for example struggling with answering these questions or just want to have some expert input on your project, plan a short call via our website and we’d be happy to share our ideas. We’re always open to share some knowledge!
