25 Jun Read This Before You Outsource Your Product Development
Outsourcing is popular these days but it can be hit or miss depending on the experience of the buyers. We’ve heard train wreck stories where small businesses may have had a bad experience, have had to re-do work and ended up with a buggy product. Developing a product means picking the right team; developer, user experience designer, quality assurance, product manager. Some buyers may think a team like this would be too costly. This is an issue of a limiting belief or false perception. It’s possible to strike a balance, and find both a competent and cost-effective team for your budget. Products should be considered investments: time, money, resources. When one or more is affected, it starts to get expensive. A team comes from multiple key perspectives to holistically bring your vision to full manifestation. Hiring just one resource to develop a product may not be sufficient. For example, time and expenses may seem ‘cheaper’ to hire just one resource, like a developer, but development isn’t one dimensional. If you are creating a mobile app, then hiring just a developer, who may be good at development doesn’t mean they are good at product testing or keeping up with latest user experience (UX) design trends. A product manager ensures the product is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do, that it’s aligned with the business’s objectives and meets the demands of the marketplace. A user experience designer can make all the difference between a much improved, user-friendly product for the end-user, and a quality assurance (QA) team member is motivated by testing the product, to ensure the end-product delivers with as few bugs as possible. The team works holistically to deliver your product. This is why product development is like a team sport. To win, you need a good team.
It’s really easy for a project to go south fast and a buyer may not know the deeper technical ins and outs to navigate problems as they come up. Not only that, but the money they thought they were saving is being eaten up with time invested in trying to fix issues they were not prepared for. In this case, time is money. While there’s nothing wrong with outsourcing, it’s knowing what to ask when hiring a team. Yume Consults can help entrepreneurs, founders, startups as a trusted advisor and ally to make that strategic difference. It can lead to more sound sleep knowing that you’re not up at night worrying because you’ve made a solid choice. Experience is what makes the difference between a great idea being executed poorly.
This is why we’ve come up with 10 Key Factors for Building a Successful Client / Outsource Relationship list. While some may read this list as basic business sense, we’ve worked with clients before they came to us, who had made these very mistakes. You will be surprised how much time is invested in getting a project off the ground. Time is a commodity you can’t get back, especially when that time is sunk trying to manage a tech project while also trying to focus on your core business. Unfortunately, a buyer may have come into a situation with unrealistic expectations, and may now be facing limitations that become pain points and headaches. Lack of experience may actually end up creating strategic mistakes in other areas; where a resource hired may have shown a great looking portfolio, you find out later when it’s too late that it doesn’t typically equate to knowing how to mitigate risks, they have poor communication skills, and may not know how to fix the issues simply because they may lack other key experience required. In essence, expectations have to be reset by both parties.
Remember, executing an idea to successful completion is the end-goal. If this is becoming problematic, get help. Or better yet, don’t make these critical mistakes before you start.
