How to Find the Perfect Developer

Hiring a developer can feel a little like dating. Everyone looks great on paper, everyone says they can help, and everything sounds promising in the beginning. Then, six months later, you find yourself wondering, "How did we get here?" 

Maybe the project is over budget. 

Maybe it's behind schedule. 

Maybe you're frustrated, they're frustrated, or you've ended up paying twice because someone else now has to fix what went wrong. 

The reality is that hiring the wrong developer can be costly in more ways than one. Today, we're talking about what really happens when a developer relationship isn't the right fit—and, more importantly, how to avoid ending up in that situation in the first place. 

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Transcript

When Hiring Goes Sideways

Carrie Saunders 0:00

Hiring a developer can feel a little bit like dating. Everyone looks great on paper, everyone says they can help. And sometimes six months later, you're wondering, how did we get here? Maybe the project is over budget. Maybe it's behind schedule. Maybe you're frustrated. Maybe they're frustrated. Maybe you paid twice because someone now has to fix it. Today we're talking about what really happens when you hire the wrong developer and more importantly, how to avoid ending up there in the first place. Let's dive in.

Show Purpose And Who It Helps

Carrie Saunders 0:29

Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back

Why Bad Fits Happen

Carrie Saunders 1:00

to the show. Today we're talking about what happens when you hire the wrong developer. So I want to start first with something that might surprise you. Most bad developer situations don't involve bad developers. It could be a good developer with the wrong skill set, a good developer with the wrong platform, a good developer with poor communication, a good developer but an unclear project. The unclear project part is something we see a lot as developers. The client doesn't quite know what they want. And so it's really hard to service them and to give them what they need. So it could be that they're still a good developer, just the situation isn't ideal. Let's say you're the course creator or coach route, and that's the type of entrepreneur you are. If you hire somebody to help you with your Kajabi system, but they're an expert in Go High Level, for example, it's like having a great plumber to rewire your house. It's the wrong person for the wrong job. They may be excellent at what they do, it's just not quite what you need. So sometimes we hire the wrong, you know, the wrong developer who's an expert in one area, but is not the software that you're

Red Flags Before You Sign

Carrie Saunders 2:10

working with. So what are those red flags that can come up before contracts and before agreements are even signed? One of the red flags is everything sounds easy. No problem. We can do anything. That'll only take a couple hours. No discussion and no discovery. I know on client calls I have said similar things like, you know, no problem. Yes, we can handle that. I didn't ever, I don't think I ever said we can do anything, but I always have a discussion behind it. So if there's no discussion and no discovery to the request you have, that can be a very, very big red flag because it can show that they're not quite thinking through potentially this your situation. They may understand what they usually do, but they may not be thinking about your situation. So that leads into red flag number two, which kind of extends us no questions. Good developers ask lots of questions. They want to understand what your needs are, your business needs, before they get going. And then red flag number three is there's no process. How will communication happen? Will it be via email? Will it be via phone calls? What about testing? What about approvals? What about documentation?

Why Cheap Can Cost More

Carrie Saunders 3:24

I actually fell into this trap a couple years ago. I hired somebody to build me a new rebranded website, and I assumed that they would communicate with me like I communicate with our clients. We communicate via email most of the time, and then when a you know, phone call explanation or clarity needs to happen, we schedule a phone call. This person only worked on my site when I was on the limited number, the eight calls that came with the contract. That's the only time they worked on my site. I was so disappointed. I was like, why am I have to why do I have to sit on this phone call for you to work on our site when you could be working on the site on your, you know, not really on your own time, but on your own time for me, where the phone call could be more like, you know, fulfilling the answers they needed to understand my needs so that they could be effective in building this new rebranded website. So not knowing the process or them not having a process can be a really big red flag. And then red flag number four is price is being your only deciding factor. This is where I see a lot of people get trapped. Cheapest and the lowest cost is not always the same thing. Sometimes a cheaper developer is going to cost you more time and therefore more money because you're gonna be losing opportunities for sales and fulfilling your client. So I want you to not look at just the cheapest developer. I want you to look at the big picture. How do they communicate? Do they ask you questions? You know, what's their time frame? All these things are very important to figure out before you decide to work

Developer Versus Strategist

Carrie Saunders 5:02

with somebody. Now, one thing I think that a lot of people don't think about when they hire a developer is they don't realize that most developers, many of them, just do what the client asks. And this is I'm kind of tying back to like a developer that asks questions is a bit better. You fit usually, because a developer that just does what you ask for and doesn't ask questions, doesn't you know make sure this is the right direction for you, many times they'll get you into more technical debt or later fixes. We want to be looking for a developer plus strategist if possible. This is one of the I feel like our biggest strong suit here at BCC is we are not only developers, but we're also strategists. We are business strategists. We want to make sure that our clients are getting the solutions that's actually going to help them long term. People sometimes hire a developer and they think that they're going to strategize with them too. And they actually just need a strategist to help them not get in these rabbit holes. Uh, there's one client that we're getting ready to help, you know, that she has this wonderful idea that she's had around for I think it's been 10 years now, well beyond the technology of the time when this platform was created. And she probably had, you know, great developers, but there wasn't any strategists behind those developers. So, you know, after the initial software was developed, it was great and good. And then she had somebody else change it. And those people weren't strategists to help her, you know, make sure she's right making those right business decisions so that she doesn't get into huge technical debt. So now she's at a place where she needs to unwind this. So it's a really good idea, especially once you become more established to hire a developer that is also at least a little bit of a strategist, or have a separate strategist to help balance the two out. So to put this into easier terms, a developer builds what's specified. It builds whatever you say. A strategist helps determine whether it should be built or not, or how it should be built. An engineer or consultant can help you evaluate your goals, your architecture, your business needs, and your implementation. So finding that unicorn, I know we're not the only ones out there, can be really, really helpful. That's how we've had, you know, many of our clients have been with us 15 to 20 years, and it's been a really great fit because we partner with them, we want to make sure their business is successful, we work with their, you know, contact person to do this strategy before we do any development work. You know, it's not just our decision, it's also the business's decision on which directions to go. And we want to make sure they can have an informed decision. So we love to work with that strategy and give them all the pros and cons of different directions that can be incredibly valuable in your business. So once you find that unicorn, hold on to them because I've just seen it work wonders over the past 20, almost 25 years now. And a little bit of a summary here. I know I kind of like rambled and went on a little bit of a tangent there, but really the the whole you know lesson here is that sometimes the biggest mistake isn't how something's built, it's deciding to build the wrong thing. So we want to have some strategy behind it. And let's talk about

Overseas Hiring And Communication Fit

Carrie Saunders 8:26

geography. I get some people asking me, should I hire somebody overseas? Should I hire somebody in my local country? You know, what should I do? This is something that um it just varies. Really, it isn't the issue that they're overseas and not in your local country. It can be a communication issue, could be a language barrier, it could be a time zone barrier, it could be a process barrier, could be expectations and culture. You know, so you want to make sure no matter where you hire or who you hire, they fit those things that match you. Is the communication the way you expect? Is the process the way you expect? You know, is there going to be any communication barriers because of time zone or language? It's very, you know, simple to really just think about it like that. You know, with the internet, the world's a bit more flat, right? But we want to make sure it's still going to be fitting into our business culture and can work well with

Questions That Prevent Regret

Carrie Saunders 9:18

us. So I'm going to tool you with some questions on how to hire a better developer. I want you to ask some of these questions. Have they done something similar to what you're asking them to do? How do they handle change requests? What if you change your mind? What if something's not working quite like you want it? How do they communicate? Is it your preference? Personally, I recommend you have them communicate mostly documented somehow, whether that's an email, a project management system, or something. Phone calls can, you know, get lost in translation. They are great for clarifying details, but I do recommend most of the communication be written in some form. I want you to also ask who does the testing. This is something that they should test and you should test. I want you to remember that. Sometimes we have clients that don't realize they need to test too, but really they it's their business and they need to make sure it's working the way they want it to, because there could be an interpretation of how this is supposed to work. So both parties need to be testing. And then I want you to also ask what happens when something goes wrong? How can you get their attention? What can they do to help you if something goes wrong or something breaks? The best projects are partnerships, not handoffs. So I want you to remember that we want to be looking for not just somebody to do a job, we want somebody that's going to work with you.

Recap And Next Steps

Carrie Saunders 10:35

So if you're considering a website rebuild, migration, custom development project, or even just trying to figure out what should happen next, getting clarity before the project starts is often the highest return on investment you can make. It's exactly the kind of thing that we love to help business navigate every day. So if you need any help with that, feel free to contact us. Just go ahead on over to smarteronlinebusiness.com and you'll find some contact information over there. So to recap, I want you to have these things in mind. Before hiring somebody, ask yourself, am I hiring the based on fit or based on price? Super important there. Do I understand the scope? Do I understand what I need here? Have I clearly defined success? This one can really make projects go sideways. We see it a lot with our own clients. Have I clearly defined success? Am I looking for implementation or strategy? This is important. Sometimes we do just need implementation. Sometimes there's simple things we just need done. But sometimes, most of the time, many times, we need strategy behind it too. Hiring the wrong developer isn't usually about finding a bad person. It's usually about finding a bad fit, starting with unclear expectations or skipping the planning that makes projects successful. But the good news is those things are preventable because when we find the right people and the right process and the right expectations, everything comes together. Technology projects become a whole lot smoother, a whole lot easier, and help build your business up and make you so much more successful. That's all we have for this week's episode of the Smarter Online Business Podcast. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope it helps you find that right next business partner, a tech partner to help you out with your next project. And as always, please rate and review us on your favorite podcast app that helps spread the news to other business owners just like you. And we will see you next week.