By Angelo Z
It is a fairly common practice that startups outsource the development of their digital products. In fact, quite a few of the world’s leading tech products were developed by outsourced teams and agencies.
So, you’ve identified a gap in the market and now you’ve got this great idea for your startup’s digital product to solve a specific problem. You can envisage users interacting with your tech and how delighted they will be.
The next logical step is to take this vision and turn it into reality. This can be very tricky, and you may not even know where to start. You know the tech needs to be developed but you’ve never worked with a development company before and how will you know which ones are the right ones to consider?
Luckily, we’ve put together this BLOG article to address this exact conundrum: what are the factors you need to consider when appointing a development team for your startup?
Through the years we’ve had the misfortune of needing to assist companies who have had bad experiences with development companies and their projects have been unsuccessful.
The factors highlighted below are a mere guideline, which should prove useful to you and the success of your startup’s product. We know and understand that the success of your entire business is hinged on the digital product, so it’s vital that you get this right the first time.
EXPERIENCE
It goes without saying that you want a web development agency that has vast experience in the industry and that has been around for many years, honing their skills and delivering successful projects on a constant basis.
You want to ensure that they have a proven track record of designing and developing projects that are similar to what you’re looking to have developed.
So, how do you determine their experience and if they have a solid track record? They need to convey that they are capable and experienced in delivering projects to a high-quality standard, consistently, over time.
1. CASE STUDIES
The development agency in question should have a decent amount of case studies that showcase projects that they have previously worked on and delivered.
Each case study should go into a fair amount of detail to provide insights into what the client was trying to achieve, what the solution was, and what was the overall outcome.
Gaining visibility of any obstacles and interesting facts about the project will give you a further understanding of the ins and outs of the development journey and factors that could also impact your project.
2. CLIENT REFERENCES
Any competent web development company that has been producing great work and has a strong track record of delivering, should be able to provide you with contact details of their current and previous clients.
These clients can share their experiences from all angles of the project, from the initial engagement to the way the project was managed and communicated, as well as the level of the quality and delivery of the digital product.
3. HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN IN BUSINESS?
A telltale sign of the success of a company is how long they’ve been in business. Typically businesses that have been in business for a long time, have gained invaluable knowledge over the years through working with different clients and developing different projects.
Companies that have been in the game longer, have most likely been improving in all areas of their business and project delivery. This is great as this directly benefits the clients and enhances the success of their projects.
4. DEMONSTRATE COMPETENCE
Ultimately what you’re looking for is a web development company that will be able to take your idea and vision and turn this into a viable, high-quality digital product that can grow and scale in the future as your business grows.
The web development company should be able to demonstrate this through their understanding of what is required, how they’ve tackled previous projects that may be of similar nature and how they’ve delivered and continue to do so.
This demonstration of competence instills a level of confidence that you seek and desire, as “they’ve been there and done it”, which is what you want for your startup, too.
5. FACTOR IN ALL OF THE COSTS
If the costs of the web development agency you have in mind sound too good to be true, it likely is.
The pricing of web development services varies. Some companies choose to price projects in tiers based on the type of work that needs to be done.
Besides the initial project development costs, you should keep in mind that ongoing costs may occur and these should be understood prior to entering into the agreement.
You should make sure that the web development company clearly lays out the hosting fees and ongoing support plans for when you want to scale your platform.
IN-HOUSE VS OUTSOURCED EXPERTISE
It is important to determine if the web development agency you are wishing to appoint has an in-house development team, or if they outsource some of the development or work with external contractors. This is a crucial point as this can quite easily determine the fate of your project and whether it will be successful or not, with long-lasting positive or negative ramifications.
In our experience, it is much better to have an in-house development team. There are numerous reasons why we favour an in-house team, too many to mention in this article in fact but here are a few key points.
In-house developers are, and should be, working according to predefined coding standards, set by the web development company. This ensures that there is consistency throughout the project, and the development team allocated to the project can grow with minimal impact.
Code quality can be monitored and verified that it is of a high standard.
In-house teams are much more aligned and work with the processes set out to ensure high-quality project delivery.
On the other hand, companies that outsource some or all of their development, increase the risk of poor quality code, inconsistencies in terms of processes, bad development practices, and ultimately a badly developed project.
We’ve seen this many times and it’s sad, as the clients are typically not tech-savvy and therefore are none the wiser until it’s too late or another development company looks under the hood and determines the poor quality of the code.
There are always increased risks of non-delivery of the project if parts of the project are outsourced or subcontracted.
WHAT ABOUT PROCESSES AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Having a strong team of competent and experienced developers is only half of the key ingredients to get your project successfully over the line.
With any web development project, there are many parts to it that need to be catered for and many processes that need to take place to ensure that the project is planned and managed smoothly.
These include strong communication throughout the project, from the very start to the end of the project, communication is key to ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of the requirements, as well as providing timely updates and demonstrations of the project as it progresses through the development life cycle.
Project management also includes other aspects besides communication with stakeholders. It involves very detailed and specific work related to the planning of the project and the development of resources. Testing teams need to be coordinated to ensure that parts of the project can be tested when completed. Project management also involves tracking the overall progress versus the projected progress, to ensure that the project is still on track.
Other important processes include getting the client involved in testing and sign-off of features and modules, as well as preparing for the launch of the project.
Having these processes and project management capabilities in place are absolutely essential to ensuring the success of the project.
TESTING CAPABILITIES
This might sound like an obvious factor but any decent development company needs to have a testing or QA (Quality Assurance) team involved in the project. These teams are responsible for testing how the digital product looks across various devices such as desktop machines, laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
They’re also responsible for testing features and functionality and ensuring that they work according to the specification and requirements.
Interestingly we’ve encountered some development companies that don't have testers/QAs, but the actual developers do the testing themselves (and not that well). QA needs to be done from a functional perspective as well as a visual perspective, to ensure that the User Interfaces render correctly and work consistently across different device types and operating systems.
Not having a proper QA team means that certain tests can be missed or bugs not picked up, especially if they don’t have a wide range of devices to test on.
Testing is part and parcel of the development of any web or software product and is essential that this is provided to ensure that the quality of work delivered is of a high-quality standard.
DO THEY GET YOU?
Is there a strong connection between the web development agency? Does the development company get your business, what you are aspiring to achieve and what your long-term vision is? Do they understand who your target market is and how they will interact with your product?
The answer to these questions will give you an indication of whether the development company really gets you, what your product is about and what you are setting out to achieve.
Finding a web development company that “gets you” is incredibly important, as these types of relationships are long-lasting due to the nature of the projects and having a competent tech partner is key to ensuring that you’ve got someone who can walk the journey with you and has your back from a development and technical solutions point of view.
SPECIFIC INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE
If your startup is going to be building a product for a specific industry or vertical, it may be beneficial that the web development agency has experience in developing digital products for this industry.
Each industry has various processes, standards and ways of operating that are possibly exclusive to it, so knowing these can fast-track the project.
Certain industries are no strangers to third-party providers in their fields. Take Tourplan in the travel industry for example. Tourplan provides companies in the tourism industry with very specific, specially-designed software that is made for Tour Operators and DMCs.
However, with that being said, if a web development agency hasn’t worked in a specific industry this doesn’t mean that they can’t develop a successful project. There are many commonalities among web development projects that are not dependent on any other industries. Learning the specific requirements for the project that are related to a certain industry is definitely possible.
We view that having specific industry knowledge is a bonus that adds value to the project.
DESIGN AND BUILD FOR SCALABILITY
Most startup products start off small when they initially launch but they have the ability to become extremely popular and widely used. Many startup founders won’t think about the scalability and performance of their product as the usage and the data within their digital product grows. This is quite a technical consideration and one that the web development company should always be considering.
When engaging with a web development company, it’s important that they think long-term and cater to the impact of high usage and vast increases in transactions (or whatever the product offers).
A competent and experienced web development company should have the processes in place, and the foresight to design the tech solutions upfront to ensure that the digital product and its underlying technology are built to scale. It should be part of the project development life cycle that this crucial requirement is planned and executed.
Unfortunately, we’ve reviewed work from lesser experienced development teams that haven’t made provision for the scalability of a platform at all, or they’ve treated it as an afterthought.
Planning and building the proper structures for future growth are vital to your product in the long term. Web development companies who engage with you on these topics show their experience and competence by catering to these requirements upfront.
PRODUCT SUPPORT
Most web projects never stop after the initial launch, in fact, it is very common for the project to constantly evolve as users engage with the digital product and provide feedback and requests of what works and doesn’t work for them (they’re building your product).
With that being said, it’s really important to know that the project has support after launch. This is to cater to small improvements, support requests, and to perform maintenance.
Over and above support, there will most likely be a need for further development to add new features and develop new functionality which enhances the product and the user’s experience.
It’s important that both support and that the ability to develop the digital product in the future is possible.
TRUST THE EXPERTS
Startup founders and business owners already have so much on their plates to ensure the success of their business. The development of the digital product or platform should be something that they can outsource and be confident that they’re in good hands.
We’re web development experts, so leave the development to us. We will apply our best practices and processes to ensure that the project comes out successfully. This allows you to focus on your core business and spend more time growing those parts.
It’s important to trust the process, trust our development team and their ability to deliver.
TO END OFF
Ultimately you want someone who really gets you, who gives you the feeling that they are confident that they understand what you’re trying to achieve and that they will be a good partner that you can trust for the years to come. They’re competent from a technical, process and delivery point of view and they have your best interests at heart.
The relationship between clients and the web development agency is a symbiotic one where the better the web development team does, the more the product will be used and grow, meaning that there will be a long-term partnership and lots of exciting and impactful features and functionality that will be developed.
Working with an experienced web development company will also allow clients to learn more about the development life cycle and understand what goes into building a digital product. This helps with future product considerations and allows clients to make more informed decisions.
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