This is part two of my three part guide to getting the best resources for projects. If you have not read it already, you may want check out the part one app flipping projects guide to resources here.
Today I want to discuss three additional factors that I believe are important when choosing resources (remember the first two are covered in the previous article).
3. Communication skills.
This one is vitally important, particularly in the outsourcing age where it is possible to find programmers from literally any country in the world.
Many outsourcers do a great job learning english as a second language (which is really the main language used on outsourcing sites). The thing you need to factor into the cost is how much extra time (which is money) you will end up paying someone who does not have a sound knowledge of english.
The cost can really skyrocket here. Explaining and re-explaining things, re-doing tasks because of mis-understood instructions and other factors that can take a lot of YOUR time need to be factored into the equation when hiring someone.
Of course, I am not saying you should only hire someone who’s english is perfect. Rather, I am saying in order to do a proper “apples vs apples” comparison between two resources, you need to factor this additional cost into the equation.
Having interviewed and/or worked with literally hundreds of outsourcers over the years, I can tell you that there is a huge variance in peoples understanding of the english language.
Some people have a sound knowledge of reading english, but struggle to write it well (or type it). Others can speak it reasonably well but struggle with reading/writing. So it’s going to depend on what your needs are.
You can be reasonably assured if you check their credentials that they know basic english (many of the contracting sites have english tests that your outsourcers can take to prove their knowledge). Nothing beats you actually doing a quick test of your own on skype, or asking them some questions via email or the contact mechanism via the contract sites to see how they stack up.
The slower they are to respond to you on text chat on skype for example, the more likely communication is going to be an issue.
Remember, if you hire a resource at $10 per hour and another is available at $40 per hour, then if you are having to spend double the amount of time explaining to the “cheaper” resource what needs to be done, or clarifying tasks due to their english not being as good as the other resource, it may well end up costing you MORE per hour to take the cheaper resource, if you put a value on your own hourly rate (which of course you should do).
Make sure you read all their correspondence (text when applying for your project work, look for typo’s, etc). If they cannot take the time to do a spell check are they really going to pay a lot of attention to detail with your project?
4. Marketing knowledge.
This one is a little controversial, but I have found it to be true in many cases. The more clued up in marketing principles your potential resource is, the worse a job they will do with your project. Thats because these resources tend to know how to market themselves very well, and get plenty of work, or are doing this type of work “on the side” when their goal is to do what you are doing – e.g. create your own app empire.
In other words their focus is not just on programming, and their attention is not on delivering the best mobile game for you, but rather on the next project or on their own marketing goals.
Typical things to check are if they have a portfolio of games in the app store, their websites, and flat out just asking them what their goals are. In other words get a feel for what they are doing, and where they are at. I am not saying having a portfolio of games is a bad thing by the way here, its just an indication.
Put it this way, would you prefer to have someone who is happy to program and produce great results or someone who is possibly looking to duplicate what you are doing. In my opinion it’s much better to find a programmer who is a great programmer, and who’s passion is programming and not marketing.
5. Passion.
This is also an important one. I happy to believe it’s important to find people who enjoy doing what they are doing and have a passion for it. Simply put you will get better results. To give you one example, I have a programmer from the Philippines who started work for me straight out of uni. He loves games and lives and breathes games, and actually wants to learn. He gets excited learning new things, like a new computer language or getting the physics engine to work.
He often works extra hours purely because he loves what he is doing.
Contrast that to someone going through the motions and treating this like a job. Who is going to give you better results? I’d say in most cases the resource with the passion will !
It’s not always easy to identify this early one, but in my experience genuine passion comes out naturally in an interview or when talking to someone, so make sure you have a conversation with someone (text or voice) before you agree to accept them on your next project.
So there you go, I hope you got a lot out this article, and I’ll be back with part 3 soon.
Cheers
Tim
