How to Find an App Developer
So you’re an entrepreneur, and you’ve got this amazing idea for an app. Now you’re probably wondering how to find an app developer who can deliver what you envision and help you bring it to market.
Building an app can be really expensive. A lot of folks have a budget for basically just one shot at version one. So you want to make sure you get the best app for your money, and get a good start to your business. My business partner Carol is joining me to discuss how to screen developers and pick out one that might be right for you.
Read on or watch the video to learn more about how to find an app developer that’s right for you.
Jay: Carol, where do we even get started looking for developers?
Carol: Well, oftentimes, I would suggest people can ask around in their network. And a lot of people these days might do a Google search. But more often than not, a referral is the very best place to start.
Jay: Okay, so we need a referral. Maybe get a couple [of referrals] you’d want to talk to. What kind of questions do you ask those developers?
Carol: I might ask them different questions than a lot of people, but most importantly, you want to ask them about their experience. Ask what kind of apps they’ve built before and if they’ve built anything like what you’re looking for. Or if they haven’t built what you’re looking for, maybe learn more about their track record and their history.
And I often learn from people based on what questions they ask. So just kind of going through that process should help you out.
Also you may want to ask about things like quality. How did they build quality into the product? How long do their projects typically take? You probably can’t figure out the cost on the first round of questions. But focus on experience, quality – things like that.
Jay: Okay. So when you talk to developers, a lot of times you get sort of a firehose of tech speak coming at you. If you’re not really technically-minded, how do you decode that?
Carol: So the way I do things is – for example, if they use an acronym, I will ask them to explain it to me like they just met me on the side of the street. And I have no problem being completely ignorant to what somebody is talking about. And I will ask them over and over to explain it to me until I get it, which you are probably familiar with, Jay! But it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what they’re saying, but know that if they can’t communicate a complicated topic to you, then they may not be a good partner for you.
Jay: That makes sense. And what kind of red flags do you look for?
Carol: Oh, my goodness, let’s see. Red flags you might look for are if they’ve never done development before, or if they can’t explain complicated topics to you. If they don’t know what testing is. You may want to ask them to explain things like the difference between a unit test and a functional test, and then ask them how to [perform] those tests. Ask them what types of tools they use for testing and what kind of language or platform they’re going to use to build your project.
And then ask them why. If they’re going to do a cross platform app for you, ask them why they like that. And ask them if that makes it a buggier app, or how easy it is to troubleshoot a cross-platform app. Or if they’re going to go [with a] native [platform]. Ask them about how they know what Android would look like, or if they are going to start with iOS, what that development process would be like.
Jay: And what other advice do you have for folks who are looking for a developer for their project?
Carol: General advice would be looking at that history that we talked about, making sure that they understand testing and have good quality software development practices. Ask them how they stay up to date on things and make sure that they have an excellent explanation as to the tools and the languages that they use.
You know, sometimes it’s not always the best to go with a developer that uses the latest flashiest network or language that’s trending that day, because it’s going to make it hard for you to find developers to take that project over in the future. And the same thing [is true] with the older languages. I hate to say it, but PHP may not be used for new projects these days. And so if you talk to developers that are going to build your whole app in PHP, see if that’s a trending job post on Indeed in your area, and it might give you a good idea of whether that’s a good idea or not.
Jay: All right, well thanks for taking us through all that today, Carol. I always hate to see somebody who sinks a huge chunk of cash into a project that ends up with a bad app or an app that just doesn’t work. So folks if you have an app idea or more questions for us, you can contact us on our website and be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more tech tips. Thanks.
