Outsourcing Experiences

[Tarheelfan2009]

I have noticed that many people in this part of the forum raise the same questions regarding outsourcing via online services such as- Elance, Guru, oDesk, vWorker, Freelancer, etc. I know there are many valuable lessons to be learned that could be shared by people willing to share their experiences. If you would like, you can use the guideline below and answer what you wish to comment on. Thanks in advance!

• What kind of project did you outsource? Details? (mobile app, website, graphic design, logo, etc.)

• What was your budget for the project?

• What nationality was your contracted worker or team? If they were not American, how difficult was communication and cultural barriers? Were time differences a problem?

• Did your worker's ability match their profile, portfolio, resume, reviews, etc.?

• Was your project completed on time?

• Would you recommend a particular website over the others mentioned above?

• Would you outsource another project after your experience?

 

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[healthstatus]

I have posted 100 jobs on elance and awarded 77 of them, spent over $60k. Worked on all sorts of projects, writing, apps, design, banners, translations, websites, programming, server maintenance, server security. Also have used onlinejobs.ph, guru.com, rentacoder.com and odesk.com.

Bottom line, the better my specifications, the better the project went.

Out of the 77, 3 or 4 were crash and burn where the person either got sick and delivered me nothing, I took the low bid and didn't pay close enough to their history and they could not perform the task, the India tsunami literally destroyed the company I had selected and we lost months of work (that was trivial compared to what they lost).

 

[TommyBoy]

I hired two projects on Elance. First was for writing a list of 100 phrase which cost me $50 by a US resident and worked out fine. Second gig was a logo design by an Indian company with plenty of "decent" samples. They offered 9 designs for my logo idea, but communication was poor. I only got one response every 24 hours even though I was awake during the India's timezone. (Responses were mostly "yes" or "no"). The logo design and typography appeared random and didn't represent much of the idea.

 

[DeletedUser2]

lots of experience there.

it comes down to this. just because its online doenst mean that there isn't someone human on the other side.

so really I have found,
1. the more specific, the better laid out, and better thought out projects do better. ask yourself, if you gave the job description to a friend with no real knowledge could he follow what you want? is his only questions around the topic? or does it make any sense to them?

2. its a human management skill. the real question is, how good are you at management? how are your management skills? what experience do you have in the capacity? do you know when someone is bullshitting you? do you know how to motivate a person? are you willing to learn?

3. most people who do outsource think that the money is the biggest driver. you have to realize, alot of these people are not professional guys with years of proposal building experience, they say, well i think it will take me this long, so i will bid X and they then lower it so that they can get the bid. later they realize its not enough money because they underbid, and need new work to keep from starving. so they take on 3 other jobs. and all suffer as a result.

4. the only people who i had problems with stealing ideas were Americans with to much time on their hands. the workers, don't often go out with the mentality of hey, this is super cool tech, or idea, ill steal it, build it, then master years worth of marketing knowledge, and extend my massive leverage into creating a huge following who will love my branding, and therefore send me lots of money.... that just densest happen with most of these guys.

5. depending on what continent you hire on, there are different cultures to deal with, and many don't realize that. alot of Americans i know, think that most think like us. we are a very entrepreneurial country. alot of countries are not. depending on where you hire, you may have a problem to manage with out any awareness what so ever of it.
an example is, many cultures don't like to lose face, so they will never tell you they don't know how. they will stay up 3 days straight studying everything they can to be able to code in c+ even if they never coded before. because in order to please their boss they think that's what is needed. so you need to pull back the cultural veil and see whats really going on.

6. trying to retrade or renegotiate deals is very bad form in some cultures, and I see it alot. they didn't come in on time, and you now start whacking the price you will pay. if your going to do that. set that as a known upfront. if they are 4 days late its x dollars off. if its a week late. they are fired. don't do it later. it goes against some cultures like the guy who farts in a fine restaurant

7. if you have never laid out a how to do something to a child, then you probably need some practice. its a skill that takes time to learn how to really utilize outsourced workers, and it a numbers game. we try 10 to find 1 good one and maybe 30 to find an exceptional one. im willing to do that to find the best workers. and I pay them better than most. SO if your not willing to do that, you will find that you get the pimple faced teenager in McDonald's type attitude sometimes. that's only solved by trying enough people out.

8. over all, outsourcing has saved me alot of money, from paying people onshore who give me mediocre work for a huge price. and if done right, it can be a great HUMAN system that can create alot of money. its a skill, a people skill, that once developed, its freaking awesome. but like any skill it takes some time, and focus.

good luck, hope that helps
Z

 

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[Jake]

I've hired several people on elance. India, Pakistan, U.S, Canada. It worked out well most of the time. I had a coder from India who wasn't the greatest once. Cut your losses and move on. set milestones or don't award large jobs unless they've proven themselves.

I'm currently interviewing for the development of an Android app on elance. I'm trying to find the most responsive ones at the moment as a few who responded to my job with great looking portfolios seem like they'd be a headache to get a hold of quickly if I have some bugs to sort out or updates to put in place.