Not too long ago, a study revealed that 50% of businesses had experienced a failed IT project within the last 12 months. Fast forward to today, and things aren’t entirely different. Interestingly, a more recent source finds that more than 50% of businesses now have junked tech projects. As a result, entrepreneurs are called to be smarter when it comes to integrating technology into their projects.
If every team member in your startup understands which projects demand the most workload and resources, then allocating energy, manpower, and budget becomes easier. And while we all need to up our project management skills, employing the right talent and aligning our priorities with the right strategies should still come first.
This is why it’s crucial to choose the tech agencies we do business with. Going the extra mile by spending a little more time getting to know the experts you’re working with can spare you a lot of time, money, and potential heartache.
To better understand the skillset, vision, and principles of an app company you’re looking to work with, consider asking the following questions.
Question 1: Can you walk me through your portfolio of developed apps?
Even though a sincere company mission and technical experience bear their own merits, nothing beats the technical experience that’s yielded profitable results. Any agency that promises you favorable results should have the data to back them up. Solid theoretical frameworks are stellar, but unless they have firsthand experience in building a well-received mobile application, you may want to weigh your options.
Competent agencies like MVP.dev shouldn’t have problems walking you through previous projects. At the end of the day, a tech company’s portfolio and clientele are reflective of their overall competence.
If your prospective agency doesn’t have a portfolio filled with prominent projects or award-winning applications, think twice.
Additionally, check out the ratings of their finished apps. What are users saying about them online? Have they ever been featured in Application platforms? These things matter.
Question 2: Can You Walk Me Through Your App Development Process?
You don’t need to be a songwriter to know that it takes skill, creativity, and talent to come up with a smash hit. The same things apply to build an app. Find out how the agency functions during the most crucial moments. Determine how long it takes them to finish a project and ask what their specific steps are in actualizing your ideas. Similar to a job interview, ask your agency of choice what kinds of problems arose during their past developments, too. How did they handle it? What remedies solved the problems?
Understanding how they respond to pressure and stress can help you validate if you share the same work strategies. The last things you’d want in collaborating with a tech agency are drama, delays, and lost dollars.
Find out if the tech agency you’re eyeing does agile development. The more efficient their developers are, the more confident you can be.
Question 3: What are your tech agency services and how do you develop ideas?
To determine if you’re getting your money’s worth, find out how they perform beta testing. Do they simply build your apps and leave quality assurance efforts to you? Credible tech companies, no matter how small, should cover business analysis, quality testing, hands-on app development, and your launch.
Ask them what technology they utilize, too. For example, MVP.dev resorts to bubble.io for no-code programming. Through this, they’re able to quickly, beautifully, and thoroughly create meaningful and functional apps within a matter of days, if not hours.
Because their technology allows them to do this, their customers are taken care of and spared from traditional app development stress. Knowing these things can give you a better perspective on which agencies best augment your style of doing business.
Question 4: What’s your workload like right now?
Developing apps can be bloody, tedious, and directionless if you don’t follow a tested blueprint. Issues like having to change key features or switching up the UI happen all the time, too. Now, these things are normal and all part of a flourishing development process.
But if your tech company of choice doesn’t have the ample number of talents to oversee projects and concerns when necessary, then you should reconsider.
If you sign a contract with them, how many projects will they be working on at present? How available will your designated IT manager be, should you have last-minute concerns? How efficiently will they be able to respond to requests? If they’re unable to give a full disclosure (perhaps because of NDAs), check out their website and manually do the math. Thriving tech agencies usually always have blogs detailing present projects, successful app launches, and other similar activities.
Knowing these things gives you a better picture of who you’re working with and what their full capacities—skill-wise and talent-wise—are.
