Outsourcing - dkt's How-To Guide

[dkt91]

Outsourcing (especially webdesign-related work) has lately been discussed a lot on here. Having worked with offshore providers nearly every day for about 18 months I decided to share some of my knowledge and experience with you in the form of this little How-To Guide.


Step 1: Know what you want

Before you can think of outsourcing anything you definitly need to know what you actually want. You got to know your requirements not only in the way that you can describe what your website is supposed to be capable of. You should also know which technologies you will need and in which way they will be used. If you do not have any knowledge about internet technology you should either try to learn some basics (it's really not as hard as it may seem at the beginning) or partner up with someone who has.


Step 2: Post your job

Now it is time to write down all your requirements as detailed as possible. Then you can start looking for partners on elance.com, odesk.com or similar websites. Something I usually do is to write at the bottom of my job post that I'd like the applicants to add some number or code word somewhere inside their application. This way you can easily filter out all the applicants who haven't even read your job post properly. There will be more of those than you can imagine.


Step 3: Find the best applicants

Using a number or code word you have already filtered out some applicants you definitly do not want to work with. Now it is time to assess the remaining applicants. What you should pay attention to:

• How is their cover letter written? Is the applicant capable of speaking clear English?
• Does the cover letter look as if it has been copied and pasted? You still might want to work with these applicants but only if their portfolio is excellent.
• Have a look at the applicant's portfolio. Has he done any work similar to your requirements? How do you like the applicant's previous work?
• Read through the feedback given to them by former clients. Watch out! If they have done great work but they are said to not pay attention to their timelines you might want to consider not working with this applicant.
• Contact former clients - send them a quick email or give them a phone call and ask them about how they enjoyed working with the applicant.

At the end of this process you should have only a few applicants left and consequently you are ready for the next step.


Step 4: Interview

Now it is time to interview the remaining applicants. How the interview is done depends on you. Normally you do the interview either via Skype or a messenger like Yahoo or GTalk. Take some time to get to know your applicants - let them talk about themselves. Their experience, their work and even their personal life. During the interview the applicant should talk significantly more than you.


Step 5: Select

Select the applicant who has left the best overall impression. Be sure to give all of your applicants the chance to be interviewed before you decide who to hire. Questions about payment method, how often you will receive status updates, etc. should be asked prior to hiring.


Outsource or not to outsource

You should always try to make a reasonable decision about whether you want to outsource your work or not. Oftentimes outsourcing your work can look very appealing, promising you it will save you time and not cost a lot of money. This is not always true - outsourcing your work does not mean you give away a task and a few weeks later you'll have an awesome result. Outsourcing will require you to control your offshore partner frequently in order to make sure you get the quality that you want. Furthermore be aware of the fact that you will most likely have to extend your budget at some point - I can almost guarantee you that your requirements will either change, you will need more functionalities or you simply forgot to list something.

Nevertheless you can really benefit from outsourcing - just pay attention that you get to work with the right people and that you don't have wrong assumptions about the topic.


If I have left out anything or you would like me to go more into detail about a specific aspect, please let me know!

 

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[Robre]

Thank you for the excellent post. I know my web skills are not the best. Do you recommend starting your own site and have someone work on improving it, or letting someone do the entire project themselves?

 

[dkt91]

I'd say it really depends on what kind of project you would like to get started with. If it is just some simple onlineshop there is not so much you can do wrong. Just invest a few hours into learning what a good design looks like and how to recognize if a website has been coded properly. This doesn't mean you have to examine the source code but pay attention to aspects like loading time, cross-browser-compatibility (does the website work and look good in all the major browsers?) and error messages.

Having this basic knowledge, you can decide upon your personal taste and skills if you feel like learning some basics (it is quite easy to set up an online shop using Open Source software and free templates) or if you let someone else do the work for you.

If you plan to work on more complex projects you should either invest some time into learning how to code properly (if you have the time and you are talented) or if you are more the business guy go ahead and find a good coder to partner up with (in this case I'd strongly discourage you from partnering up with an offshore provider). Then again you can decide - depending on how complex your project is - whether you can get your first prototype online on your own or if you need either occasional or ongoing support.

I hope this answers your question!