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The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

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Re: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

#31

Post by strimp099 »

janosdebugs wrote: post #14

Step 4: 2 years down the line the code touched by dozens of freelancers becomes so brittle that you can't launch a feature without breaking two others. Greenfield projects are easy, long-term maintenance is hard. Edit: during my career, I had numerous projects needing cleanups after developers only interested in shipping the next feature and rotating frequently. If the long term maintenance isn't your problem, the in…

This is definitely true.

My plan was to brining in freelancers just to get the thing built - because I couldn't get it done.

I've since brought on two technical co-founders with a stake in the project to avoid what you're describing.

I was only able to bring them in because I had a product launched.

Re: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

#32

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

strimp099 wrote: post #26
ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #10

How did you go about evaluating the non-technical freelancers? I have to hire for design and marketing and I'm having a lot of trouble evaluating talent. I can tell who's obviously bad but beyond that it's a bit of a toss. Also how much did it set you back, if I may ask? 2 weeks of a designer, we're talking 10 to 15k, right?

I looked for experience in my niche (trading/investing), got a few references, and saw some of their work. I was never 100% comfortable going through Upwork etc because you never really know. But I spent a lot of time writing up the requirements and talking to people to get a feel. For better or worse, in the end I went with the marketing agency that was the most transparent. I met a top notch designer through someon…

Ah interesting. I've tried looking at Behance and Dribbble to find someone but went back to Upwork because I found it easier to browse profiles and portfolios. I'll definitely check twitter, thanks for the tip.

Would you be willing to share your designer's profile/website? (if so my email is josh.salsen at fastmail.com)

Re: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

#34

Post by b20000 »

alexanderisora wrote: post #19
janosdebugs wrote: post #14

Step 4: 2 years down the line the code touched by dozens of freelancers becomes so brittle that you can't launch a feature without breaking two others. Greenfield projects are easy, long-term maintenance is hard. Edit: during my career, I had numerous projects needing cleanups after developers only interested in shipping the next feature and rotating frequently. If the long term maintenance isn't your problem, the in…

This is the biggest pain of the modern software development process. Freelancers or outsource companies are not interested in your business, they are interested in charging you for hours spent. This approach is counter productive and is against common sense. Especially if you are a solo maker, not a $$$$ backed startup. I believe to change this, we need to invent a completely new way of how software is built. I recen…

component oriented programming is nothing new and comes with its own set of problems.

this also smells like distributed programming where you have loose services on a computer communicating. nothing new either.

these approaches have other issues, like performance penalties and additional complexity and their own sets of problems.

Re: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

#35

Post by b20000 »

TheLoafOfBread wrote: post #20

> Step 1: Hire a freelance developer yeah that's the point where most of you get stuck, because lot of Freelance developers are outright liars. Before you will find somebody who at least understand what you want from him, you already wasted 2 months of your time. This can follow into a guy who understand what you want from him, but has no clue what to do and creates horrid mess. Eventually you end up redoing everythi…

but people think everyone lies on their cv as well. the bias is there too. so in the end people just assume everyone lies. which is bad, because the bias will result in false positives.

as a contractor, i recently saved a large company’s ass because they could not find or afford to hire the right guy with the right background.

Re: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

#36

Post by CodeWriter23 »

janosdebugs wrote: post #14

Step 4: 2 years down the line the code touched by dozens of freelancers becomes so brittle that you can't launch a feature without breaking two others. Greenfield projects are easy, long-term maintenance is hard. Edit: during my career, I had numerous projects needing cleanups after developers only interested in shipping the next feature and rotating frequently. If the long term maintenance isn't your problem, the in…

OP’s method accomplishes one of two things: 1) total failure 2) enough cash to hire a team that does it right.

Re: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

#37

Post by janosdebugs »

strimp099 wrote: post #31
janosdebugs wrote: post #14

Step 4: 2 years down the line the code touched by dozens of freelancers becomes so brittle that you can't launch a feature without breaking two others. Greenfield projects are easy, long-term maintenance is hard. Edit: during my career, I had numerous projects needing cleanups after developers only interested in shipping the next feature and rotating frequently. If the long term maintenance isn't your problem, the in…

This is definitely true. My plan was to brining in freelancers just to get the thing built - because I couldn't get it done. I've since brought on two technical co-founders with a stake in the project to avoid what you're describing. I was only able to bring them in because I had a product launched.

That is some rare foresight. Typically, this is not how it goes. Usually, the pressure to keep adding new features is too high, the codebase too large, and the desired functionality too amorphous for any sort of refactoring or rewrite.

Re: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

#39

Post by strimp099 »

Raed667 wrote: post #38

> Step 2: Hire a UI/UX designer If its the first time working with them, good luck not being scammed with barely any usable deliverable. And I'm not even talking about cheap bottom of the barrel contracts.

There’s a risk. I’ve certainly been burned many times in the past. However I’ve learned and spot some issues up front.

It helps to go through referrals too.

Re: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Freelancers

#40

Post by strimp099 »

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #32
strimp099 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked for experience in my niche (trading/investing), got a few references, and saw some of their work. I was never 100% comfortable going through Upwork etc because you never really know. But I spent a lot of time writing up the requirements and talking to people to get a feel. For better or worse, in the end I went with the marketing agency that was the most transparent. I met a top notch designer through someon…

Ah interesting. I've tried looking at Behance and Dribbble to find someone but went back to Upwork because I found it easier to browse profiles and portfolios. I'll definitely check twitter, thanks for the tip. Would you be willing to share your designer's profile/website? (if so my email is josh.salsen at fastmail.com)

Let me ask him
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