I had an idea for a software application and hired a programmer from one of the freelance programming websites. Towards the end he bailed. I even gave him extra money because the project ran over the time he said it would take. I ended up with useless software. He had excellent reviews, and was established on the freelance website
I know what I want the software to do but it seems I almost need to know programming to convey it or a wireframe or something. I had written down what I wanted it to do. But even the basic function ended up broken
Along the way as problems presented themselves i had to brainstorm solutions for the problems. As an example there could be two things named the same thing, this caused the software to crash. I would have thought the programmer would have already thought of this being a potential problem based on how I explained it would function. He then fixed it but in my mind this should have been a non issue from the get go.
So in essence my question is how do I explain what I want and should a programmer be asking me any questions ? Or do I have to have everything spelled out even if I am not a programmer because its seemed like I need to know programming to explain how I want the software to function. And where / how do I find a good one ?
As a developer/project manager this is a problem I’ve seen a lot of clients face.
There are two problems here. Rather than getting a programmer who just codes you need someone who’d take the time to understand what your business model is, what you’re trying to do, what your use cases are and then works accordingly. For this you’d need to be deeply integrated with the development process otherwise it just doesn’t work.
Secondly, freelancing websites are cheaper but more often than not you’d end up with useless and non functional websites so it’s better to stay away from them.
As I mentioned, I am product manager as well and I, can have a look at what you have.
You can view some of recent projects we have done for our clients by visiting the following links: wheretocop.shop, flashserp.com, fulltimewin.live, retailed.io, proselfies.com
I love how on every one of your sites, you immediately tell the visitor what the site can do for him.
You don’t know how many times I land on a site, and it takes me 15 minutes to figure out what they do. On some, I give up because I can never get a clear message of what they can do for me.
Good work.