You are on the edge of life-changing decisions. You have already invested an enormous amount of time and energy – a veritable mountain of work – but the next step remains unclear to you: where and how to find a good, dependable software developer for your startup, someone to develop your app or website.
How do you find someone you can trust your money to and – even more importantly – rely on them with your great idea? With your future business?
You can keep reading this article. Alternatively, you can hire a dedicated team, and IT Craft will help your startup become a profitable business.
Do you have four minutes to spare? To help you arrive at the best decision, we collected advice from successful startups and present you with a five-step process:
Step 1. Make an action plan.
For best results, make a list of your exact requirements. After completing the list, put them in order of priority beginning with the most important. Based on your list – and your desired timeline – do you need a single developer or a team? Pay special attention if you choose a single programmer. Service cost is usually less. However, if you are going to start your project from the ground up, a single developer is not enough. Someone must test your project and submit it to live environment (to the mobile store, if it is a mobile app and to your hosting server, if it is a web-based system). And, a sole developer seldom realizes what he doesn’t know or cannot do well. Herein lies the main advantage of choosing a team – it’s a well-adjusted process from A-Z.
If you have no idea how to build a development process for your startup, what technology should be used, what solutions would be optimal to ensure the best results, if you even can’t imagine what kind of hidden obstacles you meet head on, that could turn your idea around – choose a team to work with.
Side note regarding cost: If you have a limited budget, be wise not to choose the cheapest to save money: often the cheapest is the most expensive because there is a huge risk you might lose everything. Don’t be distracted by a low estimate, because low estimates often mean low priority: your project will not receive needed attention to be successful. Also, some lower-price-range program developing teams, might say “Yes, of course, we can do that!” just to get your business.
Step 2. Make a selection pool.
There are a few ways to select candidates:
- LinkedIn: an extensive professional network,
- Upwork, is a global onlline platform where businesses and startups have an ability to connect remotely,
- The Platform for freelancers, startups and investors: Angel List,
- DesignRush.com is a digital destination to inspire creative minds. The site features best designs by industry, spotlight interviews with top designers, trends, events & the top lists of global agency, marketing and technology companies.
- If you are looking for a team – go to Clutch. That is a very trusted resource for clients looking for a dependable, trustworthy team. Because Clutch has a dedicated manager for every company listed, everything is tracked and verified very carefully: this is incredibly important for prospective clients. Before any testimonial – customer feedback – is posted on behalf of a service provider, Clutch contacts the customer and verifies the statement for its authenticity.
Step 3. Choose the top ten for your list.
Whether going with a team or an individual programmer, the process is the same. Here, we discuss choosing a team.
Look through the software developers’ websites. Explore their rates: you can also find this information on Clutch.
Check out each team’s portfolio and keep only 10 – the top 10 who are more experienced. Pay particular attention when you look at the developing teams’ projects. If you like what you see, ask them to send references. Check out what clients have already worked with them; read through the testimonials.
Step 4. Shortlist the final five.
Now you are down to the final five. It’s time to arrange a call with each of them. Prepare writing a list of questions: same questions for each team. If possible, record the conversation – but tell them in advance you are going to record it!
Choose a team who listens to you, asks relevant questions and tries to understand exactly what you want to present to the world. And, of course, you need to find the best team for your startup.
Don’t forget about programmers’ experience. Only years’ and years’ of experience could help you in the way of realizing your goal.
Then, ask them what kind of plan they suggest for moving forward. If they can’t give you a plan – even a tentative plan – move on to the next team. This is crucial. If they can’t give you a plan, they are not experienced enough.
Communication remains a key component in building a trustworthy relationship.
Take note of the way they communicate with you. If a company is interested in your ideas, takes an active part in discussions, and offers you some additional options, you can be assured your project stands out for them. They will care, they will listen – and together you will develop something great!
Step 5. Select your team/person
Three criteria: trustworthy, capable and experienced. Add good communicators and listeners. Your chances to increase success: find a team who wants to create not only code for you, but also a working relationship, a relationship based on trust.
Are you still doubting? Let’s look at this situation from another angle:
If you are forced to choice between letting your health of expert surgeon or intern, whom would you trust it?
P.S. If you have any ideas to add, contact us and share your thoughts.
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Greetings,
Nice reading, thanks. Just to note, when you are a startup right in the beginning, technological stack might be not as crucial as time to market. You need a team ready to build an MVP fast. You need to make sure your team understands this and they establish internal processes Agile, Scrum, whatever to deliver as fast as they promise. Also, when you are want with a remote team, take your time to visit their office and talk to everyone in person. This saves you from long Skype calls.
Agreed with above speaker. From my experience, I love working with a remote team but you need to be aware of specifics.
When you are dealing with an offshore outsourcing team, you will be working from different time zones. You should seriously consider time lag so that urgent tasks won’t be possible unless they promise you 24/7 support. On the other hand, this can used as a benefit when you assign tasks to your team in the end of your working day and discuss the result when your next working day starts.
Here is my thoughts on the topic.
It happens sometimes that your team stops performing. Take time talk to the team seriously and find out the reasons. Assigned tasks might reveal more complex problems and in this case, deadlines can be extended in order to pursue the global result rather than just close current sprint.
Unfortunately, this can be also a sign of team’s internal problems. When the situation does not improve search for another team.
The post is fine but it might need to make a difference between startups.
Here is the point: do you – as a startup – have a specification or just some general vision of what you want and that will changes as soon as you validate your idea? Both approaches are possible but they might require different managerial and/or programming skills that fit in with startups’ needs. Discuss this issue with your prospective team before you start cooperation in order to exclude frustration as not all engineers are happy about constant pivots. This is favorable when the team has a BA then, you a have a person with who you can estimate and plan more accurately.
Thanks for the post.
Agreed on importance of references: if you do not feel confident you are talking to professionals, just ask them for a reference from a happy client.
However, when you are a non-tech person and you struggle to evaluate technical skills, think about inviting a tech partner who will be a CTO in your startup and bear responsibility on the technical part.