There’s a lot of anxiety that can come with outsourcing the development of your websites design. A lack of control, communication and understanding can feel frustrating when you aren't working with an in-house developer.
To eliviate some of these frustrations, it is important to diligently interview your outsourced developer. The more you know before signing the dotted line, the better your working relationship will be in the long run.
What questions should you be asking? What will uncover the details that will help you protect your business? Before hiring a team of outsourced developers we recommend that you ask these five questions.
What are your core services?
When you’re hiring a new web developer, it's important that you know exactly what skills and expertise your agency requires of a developer to accomplish web projects. Ask during the interview process and find out what their core web development services and specialties are. Do you work in HubSpot frequently? Then you'll want to make sure a certified HubSpot developer works on their team.
Can they provide you with the comprehensive design and development that you expect, and measures up to the industry standard? Can they create an effective responsive website? Don't be afraid to get really granular about their expertise and their time working on the platforms that you're sourcing for.
Do they use SEO best practices?
Prioritize having a website that follows SEO practices so potential customers can find your website through search engines. Though your outsourced web development team is likely not implementing on page SEO aspects , it’s important that your team understands how to build a website that makes it easy for your company to implement these standards.
Ask outsourced developers about how they use code, and if they will use style sheets to minimize the amount of code on your web page. Also, ask them about how they use script files - will they create script files for pages, or have script on individual web pages? You also need to ensure that your heading tags are styled appropriately and that offer responsive web design services.
Ask outsourced developers how they test their work?
This question is crucial. There is nothing worse than delivering a website and having your client come back to you with a laundry list of mistakes (this is on you the agency as well!). Ask them to explain their process and where, how and what they are testing for. Make sure that the team you hire prioritizes this stage of web design and development as much as you do.
Always make sure you ask for specifics on what the development team does as part of their testing phase, and always make sure you know what the team can be accountable for once the website has gone live.
Can they provide references?
Ask to see samples of their work, more importantly work similar to your project deliverables. If they've developed something similar, even better.
If you can, ask for references from past clients as well. By talking to these previous clients you can get an understanding of how the company will work with you through the web development process.
Do they provide ongoing support?
Assuming that things will go flawlessly once the website has officially gone live and been launched can be your downfall. Inevitably there will be a flaw, and what you need to know before you hire a web development team is how they will handle that.
Do they want their job to be finished once the site is launched? How do they handle support requests? Pay attention to how committed the company will be to providing support for your website post-launch, and make sure that the company’s expectations line up with yours.
Once you have the answers to these questions, you should have an idea of whether the web development team you’re interesting in outsourcing to will give you what you need from the team. Choosing an outsourced web development team involves looking at different firms and finding the one that works best for you. For more information on how to outsource your web development needs, and what to expect from a team, click below to download our guide on how to outsource web development with ease.
