What to do before hiring remote developers

Before hiring remote developers, you need to set the goals and objectives of the project. You don’t have to make a detailed plan or list all the features of the product in advance. The main thing is to explain why you want to release the product and what result you expect. To do this, you need to take several important steps:

Think over an idea. It is necessary to present the product in all its details and think through as many questions as possible. You have to understand: who will use the app, what audience problems it can solve, determine the functionality, and consider monetization. A well-thought-out concept will help you develop the right app, save money, and launch the product on the market quickly. 

Let’s imagine that the chef Benedict decided to create an app with recipes. It will collect the user’s taste preferences, ask what products he has and issue recipes for dishes. In this case, you should not tell the outsource developer something like: “In short, I want an app that shows recipes.” The developer will not understand in which direction to move, and what exactly the client expects. Benedict should think over the details of the product. For example, answer questions about what specific preferences the app will consider: food allergies, dislike for specific products. And how will it match these preferences — replace unloved products or not offer recipes with them? Where the app will the recipes and in what form will offer them to the user.

Define an audience. The product will make a profit only if there is a demand for it. Therefore, it is important to study potential customers in advance. A little research will help you make sure your users are interested in your app. To do this, you can create a survey on the Internet, which will collect the necessary data.

Consider the language and geography of users. For example, if you are creating an app for food delivery only in New-York, post surveys on local forums and websites. Use popular services like Surveymonkey, Typeform or Google Forms.

You should place the survey among the target audience. This will help to obtain unbiased results and draw accurate conclusions. Let’s imagine that you are developing an application for Dota players. It will collect data about each game and provide various statistics. The user will be able to analyze their matches and improve the quality of the game. In this case, you can create a post on a Dota2 forum or a topic on Reddit or in the Steam community.

Create and test MVP (Minimal Viable Prod"