Hopefully by now you’ve decided you want to collaborate with a developer, it’s your time to outsource, and you’ve picked out the developer you want to work with. Now it’s time to make a list of what exactly you want to outsource. Keep in mind this list doesn’t have to be comprehensive from the start. I would recommend you start with just a few items to make sure this is going to work well and figure out how the partnership is going to work. Then once you have worked together for a while, you can start adding to the list of items your developer takes care of.
Let’s put the list together.
First, make a list of the tasks that you may not have the staff to take care of. Or maybe you had a developer at one point but they just couldn’t stay busy. Now look at the tasks that some of your staff take care of but may not be in their wheelhouse. These are those pesky tasks that need to get done but the person who is assigned to them just doesn’t understand them. Maybe these tasks end up taking much longer than needed or there are always issues popping up.
Next, make a list of the things you would like to offer clients but you just haven’t had someone on staff who could take care of them. Do you want to update your website a little bit? Want to introduce some new plugins or themes? Is Ecommerce on your mind?
Highlight 3-4 that are most critical – these will be your non-negotiables.
Once you’ve identified what you need done and what direction you want to go, then it’s time to start handing off tasks to your developer. At first, it might be difficult to hand projects off to a new developer; but it will get easier as time goes by and you build trust.
