Lessons I've learned outsourcing development
Outsourcing development for your app is a tricky business.
You pay for every change and mistakes are literally costly.
I've so far outsourced development for the MVP of my app, Neatly, launched it and am now gathering feedback to move to my next phase, the MDP (minimal desirable product).
Here's what I've learned from the experience:
- Find an agency that's a real partner & provides real product input, not just development (they have a lot of experience)
- Be cheap with your MVP development & only include the most essential features
-- The signups I've had have shown that my app offers the most value for a market I didn't consider, which changes the product direction
-- I've realized that some features I wanted to include in the MVP, but didn't due to cost won't move the needle, which now means I saved money - Learn how to write good product specs & mock-ups, this will save a lot of time and money as well as get you exactly what you want
- Have as many people as possible QA as you go. Your outsourced development agency will still miss bugs even if they do good QA (it happens at startups with plenty of QA staff as well).
Any other suggestions?
Thanks for the info!
Billy, can you talk more about the best way to write good product specs and create mock-ups? Is there a resource to learn this step? Thanks
I don't know if my way is the best practice, but I have some experience working with developers from my day job and I've learned how they prefer specs to be written.
Most important is that it's very clear what you want them to build, how everything should behave and that you don't skip out on the details.
I usually mix a line or two about what I want to happen with a screenshot of the action's steps and outcomes. I then write beneath it any details, like how the action varies based on user role.
I also feel like you need to create somewhat detailed mockups (the screenshots) if you don't want to leave it to the developer's imagination as to how everything should look. It usually edit the html in browser as well as some image editing to get what I want.
You can see a sample of my spec here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mrU9VDLIJS1PEXZ8nn6DNdkjfjzTV9gS/view?usp=sharing
@billyattar can you share what agency you when with offshore? Was there anything in particular you included or excluded from their contract?
I'm working with Linkup Studio
I was happy with the contract terms so I didn't ask for anything to be changed.
Hi, I disagree with your first paragraphs. If you work with a trustworthy company everything will be good and you'll get a perfect product. I think, if you are working with a trustworthy company you don't have to pay for every mistake or change in your app. it's enough to discuss everything with the contractor before the development process.
I meant that you have no margin for error in planning your app. A weak feature or poor ux cost you money to change, unlike developing yourself where it costs you time.
I agree that any good developer or agency will fix mistakes for free if they occur. The agency I work with does so as well.
Hi, I think that you are right in terms of time.
Thank you for the informative insights!
Happy to share :)
Hi @billyattar
Congrats for Neatly, looks good.
Can you indicate the rough outsourcing costs? I'm asking because there's the website and the app itself. Were they both done by the same agency?
Thanks!
I built the website myself, so that was free.
An MVP should cost somewhere between $15 - 25k depending on the agency you choose. Maybe a little more if you go with one in the US or UK.
The price I quoted for the MVP will get you something that works, but is no frills -- enough to validate your product direction and start building a user base.
Good information! That means you have to risk quite some money if you go this route.
On the other hand, probably you'll make fast progress.
I think this is the route that you take when you can't get a technical co-founder to partner with - or you're positive your app will be successful.
It took me 3 years to get Neatly built because I tried to recruit a technical co-founder. Twice I succeeded in recruiting and twice they bailed months later without writing a single line of code.
After 2.5 years of waiting, a friend convinced me that if I don't take the risk, it'll never happen.
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
Yes.