Know Exactly What You Want To Build First, Then Outsource

July 16, 2007 by stedjamulia.

I am sure you have a great idea for a start-up and have done due diligence to validate your idea and the market opportunity. Now you are ready to hire a developer and get going. In my first series of blogs, I will discuss what a person needs to do to get their idea ready for development, find the right outsourcing partner, negotiate best pricing with an outsourcing partner, and ensure successful development of their product. The goal of this blog series is to help first timers successfully get their idea documented, developed, and released.

In the beginning you probably discussed your idea, drew some pictures, and even drafted some preliminary thoughts of what your product will do. Prior to engaging with any outsourcing company, it is a good idea to take some time to create the basic interfaces for your product and document your product’s requirements.

Designing the interface and documenting the product requirements takes time. The devil is in the details and creating an easy to use product is not a small accomplishment. The more concrete and detailed you can be about what needs to be built prior to development, will save you a lot of time and money. If your company is not able to agree on what needs to be built and you cannot properly describe to developers your product, then you will almost for sure end up requesting changes that may slow down development, causing wasted work, inaccurately estimating required resources, mismatching developer skill sets with project needs, and creating a faulty architecture.

Developers do not want to work for clients who have not properly documented their requirements. Others charge expensive fees for having to do additional work that is not coding. Remember developers like to code and do not like to create requirements and specifications. Unless you are willing to hire a business analyst or product manager, I would suggest you spend some more time working on requirements and interfaces before hiring a developer. No one will take ownership for your product as you will; therefore, assume control from the beginning, and drive your product to success. If you do this, then any good outsourcing company will help you succeed.

My next blog will address different tools you may want to use to rapidly create product interfaces which will get you closer to being able to start your outsourcing project.

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