5 Proven Steps on How to Find and Hire the Best App Developers for Your Business in 2019

By 2019, the primary indicator for business owners when choosing a contractor has become in-depth expertise in a particular area. It’s crucial to pay attention to whether you share the same vision with a potential contractor, whether a company is interested in the purpose of creating a product, and whether it is ready to discuss your objectives expertly.

In this article, openGeekLab outlined five proven steps on how to find and hire top app developers for your business.

1. Why Is Focusing on Business Objectives Become a Priority?

For example, your objective is to launch an ICO campaign for a startup, develop a Blockchain-based solution for a fintech project, create a fitness and healthcare app, or a web app for invoice insurance.

A contractor’s expertise in a narrow niche allows delivering custom solutions and implementing unique features — smart contracts creation, cryptocurrency implementation, crypto wallets development, invoice management, payment options, wearables integration, multi-device sync, real-time tracking, etc.

The initial goal isn’t about developing a product and closing a project as soon as possible. It’s about creating a reliable tool to achieve defined business goals — boost sales, solve users’ problems, attract a new customer base, increase brand awareness, and loyalty.

2. Choose the Right Type of a Contractor

Decide who you want to work with — offshore software development partner, an in-house team, or hire freelance app developers.

Offshore software development partnership means relocation of particular business processes outside your country.

Pros:

• Suitable for long-term and complex projects.
• A more specialized skill set and a comprehensive tech stack.
• Affordable rates as compared to the cost of an in-house team.
• Saving time as all staff and stuff are under one roof
• You can scale a team, depending on current needs and a project stage.
• Transparent workflow by applying management tools and methodologies.
• Eliminating delays due to the streamlined communication process.

Pitfalls:

• Different time zones can be a problem in case of poor communication.
• Limited control as you don’t have full-time access to a workflow.

In-house software development stands for a product development taking place onsite to support your business operations.

Pros:

• Putting together an entire staff and applying favorable infrastructure.
• In-depth understanding of business aspects.
• Personal control of annual expenses.
• Tight control of development due to a guaranteed availability to a workflow.
• The same time zone.
• Ability to manage multi-year projects.

Pitfalls:

• High costs for regular salaries, medical insurance, sick days, leave period, office rent, software, equipment, employee benefits, and perks.
• The process of finding and training local mobile app developers takes from 30 days to a few months.
• Tech stack can be limited since a particular specialist would probably have a more general skill set.
• Not suitable for short-term projects.

Freelance app developers are specialists who are self-employed and mainly perform one-time tasks.

Pros:

• Suitable for short-term and simple projects.
• Lower rates compared to the costs of an in-house team or offshore development company.
• Payment only for completed tasks.
• Fewer communication overheads.

Pitfalls:

• No guarantee of quality work.
• Not suitable for long-term and complex projects.
• No possibility of post-deployment maintenance.
• Lack of experience in multiple technologies. For additional work, you need to hire a new specialist, e.g., a designer or a QA engineer.
• Lack of tools to manage workflow.
• Freelancers may be involved in several projects simultaneously from different customers, which may affect your product quality.
• Risk of not completing your task, and failing deadlines.
• Risk of stealing your idea and disclosing confidential information.

Before you choose a particular type of a contractor and where to hire developers, keep in mind that the rates range may vary significantly in a specific region. Rates depend not only on the application complexity and developers’ skill set and expertise but also on an image of the region and the cost of living.

3. Platforms to Browse

You can use personal connections, randomly browse the Web, or surf through social media to find application developers for hire, but the best option is to monitor specific platforms.

Clutch and GoodFirms are considered the trusted B2B platforms among businesses to find contractors due to their honest approach. You can’t leave fake reviews, as service managers carefully check all data. These services analyze and rank best app developers for hire in broad categories.

These platforms offer companies to become sponsors. In case of purchasing a sponsorship package, a company receives an advanced position in ratings, reviews, better visibility, ads, and other benefits which may mislead you while browsing categories.

LinkedIn is a social network focused on business connections. Companies publish their articles and news. Individual freelancers communicate on thematic topics. But profiles that are not fully completed, can be overlooked by the interested party. Also, there are many fake accounts that can cause inconvenience when searching for a contractor.

Upwork, Freelancer, People Per Hour, Guru and other freelance platforms offer such business tools as online and offline time tracking, invoices, file sharing, messaging, notifications. Comments and star ratings from previous or current clients, as well as job success, can help to find appropriate freelancers.

GitHub as a code hosting platform provides you with the opportunity to take a look at specific samples of open source code.

Look through portfolios on design platforms — Dribbble, Behance, Slideshare, 99Designs, crowdspring, etc. Good design sells, so carefully check samples and presentations published on these websites.

Such platforms for competitions as Kaggle, DrivenData, DataScience, or CodaLab hold machine learning and data processing contests. The more successful accounts and projects, the more qualified mobile app developers.

You can also analyze a technical blog where a team crafts content which is useful for businesses and startups.

4. Compare Programmers

For an accurate analysis of potential contractors, create a comparison table considering the following issues:

1. Portfolio of Past Projects

Ask candidates to show the samples of applications they have already created. A portfolio will give you a comprehensive understanding of the developer’s skill set.

2. Development Capabilities

Make sure that a tech stack, functionality, and design solutions are precisely what your business needs. Consider time-and-cost effective solutions. For example, cross-platform development using React Native allows you to create a mobile app both for iOS and Android, reduce costs 1.8 times, and shorten the development time.

3. List of Former or Current Clients

The list of client base will also help you to weigh the pros and cons of a particular developer. You can request a review of the work done, ask whether clients are satisfied with the result, or maybe they have suggestions on what they would like to improve.

4. Payment Structure

Specify which payment model a company uses and ensure that a team completes product development without exceeding budget. Time and material pricing model fits best for massive and long-term projects. A milestone payment system is also widely used. Some prefer hourly payments.

5. Communication Flow and Product Management Tools

Ask creators what tools they apply in their activities and how they conduct communication Jira and Trello are essential to controlling development and meeting deadlines.

6. Product Management Methodologies

Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, and other methods are perfect for various projects with entirely different input sets and requirements. You can also combine these methods.

7. Protection of the Application Idea

Specify how you can secure your IT-product. The proven option is to sign a confidentiality agreement (NDA) considering intellectual property rights, as well as ownership of an app’s source code, design, and content. Define the responsibilities, deliverables, payment structure, workflow, and deadlines.

5. Carefully Review a Portfolio

A careful review of a company’s case studies lets you know whether a team is worth your efforts.

• Similar Features. Make sure that a company has already implemented features similar to yours. Check what an initial problem was, and what solution was found to solve it.
• Experience in Your Business Niche. Ensure that creators have already built applications for other businesses in your niche. In this case, a company has expertise in your area and knows what languages, frameworks, or design solutions are the best for a specific market.
• Make Sure a Company Mentions Challenges. Portfolios with the lack of description of the difficulties faced by a development team should cause doubt. Search for firms that openly talk about challenges, and what solution they offered to solve various pain points.
• Customer Reviews. Note if there are customer reviews in case studies. The lack of reviews should cause mistrust. In this case, you can ask a company to provide you with clients’ contacts or look through a contractor’s profiles on specific platforms that we mentioned above.
• Portfolio Design. Portfolio design will give you an idea of whether a company follows main design principles and guidelines.

Focus on Quality Instead of Rates

Choose those who strive for creating a powerful tool for your business needs. You can hire freelance app developers, found a team from local mobile app developers, or cooperate with an offshore team. Each type of cooperation has its pros and cons. To find the golden mean, point out all the benefits and the real business value a contractor can offer you to meet your objectives.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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This article was originally published on the openGeeksLab blog.