Hiring Contract Developers

Disclaimer: This is HARD

• Developing software is HARD
• Managing projects is HARD
• Estimating is HARD
• Developers are HUMAN *

Estimates are Estimates

Everybody does it differently, and its damn near impossible to be "right".

1. Your project is uncharted territory. Nobody has ever done it before
2. The longer/trickier your problem, the less accurate the estimate
3. Some people overestimate, some people underestimate

Estimates alone are insufficient as a basis of comparison for selecting a contractor

What Language Should I Use?

• "Users don't care so I don't care" *
• Tech is a tool. Language (mostly) doesn't matter **

Use PHP or Ruby on Rails for your MVP

If you use common tools, it's easier to find workmen to wield them.

Developer Prices

• Offshore PHP - $15/hr
• Local PHP - $30-$50/hr
• Local Ruby on Rails/Django - $50-$125/hr
• Front end/UX $30-$150/hr
• HTML/CSS - $15/hr

How Much Is This Going To Cost?

Graphic Design/HTML

• Offshore: $500-$1500
• US: $2k-$6k

2 mo Development

• Offshore: $6k
• US: $12k-$20k

Total

• Offshore: $6.5k-$7.5k
• US: $14k-$26k

What To Expect

Build time ranges

• 4-12 hours per page
• 10-20 hrs for DB design
• 10-40 hours per task for backend stuff like paypal integration, scheduled tasks

Your goal is to get your MVP specs to 200-400 hours

Choosing Your Mercenary

Hiring people is risky. Your goal is to reduce this risk.

• Reviews
• Developer Test
• Trusted Advisors

Reviews on Freelancer Sites

These suck

• People are liars
• Bait and switch
• Good before != Good today

Don't rely on these at all

Developer Test

The job posting IS the interview

Your job post is designed to filter out bad candidates. It should contain 3 parts:

• In your job post, explicitly tell the developer to respond with a certain phrase in the subject. You don't want developers who don't read.

• A survey of tech questions about development practice -- These are mostly to test communication skills
• A simple test for the developer. It should be:
  • Simple
  • Doable in less than 2 hours
  • Clearly defined, but with one or two ambiguous points

Developer Test (Part 2)

"Give the candidate just enough rope to hang himself"

Test for:

• Developer Competency
• Speed
• Responsiveness
• Communication
• Process
• Comprehension

Expect:

• 10 in 50 developers to respond
• 3 in 10 respondents to succeed
• 1 in 3 to be available

Yep, it sucks!

Use A Trusted Advisor

Get a nerd to watch your back. Who?

• Friends, if you have them
• Other tech CTOs, alcohol buys friends

  Picking up the tab for a night of boozing buys goodwill and will save you money from getting screwed. Consider this an insurance policy

How to use them

• People are busy. Make it easy for them. Do all the prep work, you just need them to sign off.
• Specific asks:
  1. Help design a developer test
  2. Be the final filter on hiring
  3. Broad tech architecture (if it matters)
  4. Choose reasonable milestones
  5. Evaluate code after milestone delivery

Other considerations

"Fast, cheap, good -- pick 2"

• Speed
• Price
• Quality
• Process
• Availability (other commitments)
• Availability (ongoing work after MVP)
• Critical thinking
• Responsiveness (require 24 hour email turnaround)
• Communication (English language proficiency)
• Code Maintainability

I Want The Best of the Best

Get in line

The market is highly inefficient, so there ARE great deals on awesome devs at depressed prices. However, it takes lots of time, effort, and skill to find them.

Advice: Get "good enough" -- waiting for "the best" might mean never building.

Collaborating With Developers

• Require version control (git or something)
• Use a ticketing system (codebase HQ, trello)
• Daily reports (whenever they work, they should send you a summary)
• Do not skimp on small resources. If they need a host, get it for them. A domain? Buy it. You're spending 1000s of dollars, don't let 10 dollar expenses trip you up.

Sites to hire from

• Elance: Reviews, milestones
• oDesk: Reviews, screenshots
• Hacker News: Best guys, not the cheapest, but less shopping. Look at threads posted bythe user account: whoishiring

Homework

Start hunting for a hired gun

Post jobs on oDesk or eLance

Spec writing practice

How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

How to tie your shoes