When you need a web developer, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to find a professional with the relevant skills and expertise. There are thousands of specialists available on the market, ready to work with clients from various regions of the planet. The most challenging part of the process is to get started and properly organize your collaboration with the top website development companies. In this article, we’ll share a step-by-step guide on how you should act.
Define the Specifics and Objectives of Your Project or Product
Every developer will want to know from the onset how large and complicated your project is. This classification should help you provide them with a correct answer:
- Simple. You want to create a simple website from scratch or add new features to an existing one. Such features can be a subscription button, a CTA button or a contact form.
- Medium. Here are the most common examples of medium-scale projects: integrating an API, chatbot, database or CMS into your website, building an online store or a web app.
- Large. Such projects involve storing large amounts of data, that’s why they need cloud hosting servers and the most advanced technologies. Social networks and video-sharing apps belong to this category.
The second question that the developer will ask you is why you hire them. The most typical answer is that you’re launching a startup and you want to enter your business niche as fast as possible. That’s why you need a developer or a team with the necessary skills and portfolio. Alternatively, you might be looking for new specialists because your in-house development team can’t handle certain tools or technologies. Besides, your staff members might be too busy with the current tasks and you urgently need to outsource extra professionals to help them cope with the workload.
List the Required Skills
Web developers fall into three categories:
- Front-end. They create that part of a digital product that end-users interact with. While web designers are responsible only for the visual aesthetics of the website, front-end developers are in charge of the functionality of its interface. They make sure your site is intuitive and customer-friendly.
- Back-end. End-users won’t see this layer of your website. The back end ensures the operation of all the functionality of your digital product.
- Full-stack. Such developers can deal with both layers of the website.
Normally, it’s more affordable to hire full-stack specialists rather than their back-end and front-end counterparts.
Look for Professionals
If you need a freelancer for a short-term project, the most popular sources for finding such professionals are:
- Upwork
- Freelancer.com
- Guru
If you require specialists for long-term work, Clutch and SoftwareWorld are the go-to resources.
Such websites as IT-rating can help you find developers for both long-term and project work.
Do you like some tech blogs that development teams run? If you appreciate the knowledge and the manner of communication of a certain team, don’t hesitate to reach out to them and ask them whether they would be interested in working with you.
Evaluate the Developer’s Expertise
Each developer specializes in specific programming languages, tools and frameworks. Their expertise needs to be relevant to your project. Check their portfolio. Have they completed any projects that are similar to yours? If yes, that’s great. Plus, it would be smart to have a look at the developer’s profile on Linkedin, Behance and Dribble networks.
If you lack technical knowledge, IT ratings can help you. The people who compile them thoroughly evaluate the potential and achievements of each development team they list. They rely on a set of strict and measurable criteria.
Apart from hard skills, the professionals whom you sign a contract with should have the following soft skills:
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Proactivity
- Approachability
- Helpfulness
To assess their soft skills, consider arranging a video interview. Alternatively, you may ask each candidate to record and send a video to you. They should explain in front of the camera how exactly they will handle your task.
Select a Working Model
There are three main models of cooperation:
- Project-based. Its target audience is startups and established businesses that need to complete just one relatively small project. The clients let the developer know their requirements. They both agree on the time frames, scope and price of the work. The developer is fully responsible for choosing the optimal tools and other technological aspects.
- Dedicated team. Such a team comes in handy for organizations that don’t want to hire in-house specialists. It would be reasonable to stick to such an approach if you need to build an AI-powered chatbot or integrate cloud storage into your website. If you have a project manager, they can supervise the development process. Otherwise, the dedicated team can control their own work.
- Extended team or outstaff. Opt for it if your budget is small and your project is so big that your in-house professionals can’t cope with it without external assistance. Your CTO and project manager will be supervising your outstaffed employees.
Your choice should depend on the scope and complexity level of your project.
Decide on a Payment Model
For project-based work, you can choose between two payment models:
- Fixed. It makes sense to do so if the project is small and the developers will know from the onset how much time and effort it will take them.
- Pay as you go. This scheme suits projects of any scale that might require many modifications on the go. The developers will track how much time they spend working on your project and you’ll pay them accordingly.
If you hire or outsource professionals to work for you for a long period of time, be ready to pay a monthly salary to them.
Conclusion
Before you start looking for a developer, you should define the specifics and the objectives of your project or product. In the next step, you need to list the required development skills. Then, you begin to search for specialists and evaluate their expertise. Finally, you select a working model and decide on a payment model.
