Developer feedback / customer experiences

Jobs / Freelance
1

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to tap into the collective experience here regarding development agencies.

My venture involves building a significantly database-intensive application/platform. I’m currently researching potential development partners (agencies) but finding it challenging to identify teams with demonstrable expertise in architecting and building robust, scalable database solutions.

As many of you likely know, it’s easy for agencies to claim expertise, but vetting their actual capabilities without firsthand experience is difficult. That’s why I’m turning to this community.

Could you please share your experiences – both positive and negative – working with specific development agencies, particularly if your project had significant database requirements? Hearing about who delivered great results (and why), or perhaps who struggled, would be incredibly valuable.

Thanks in advance for any insights or recommendations you can offer!

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2

@bubblerookie

Welcome to the Bubble community! :tada: :confetti_ball:

That would be great. You just never really know because you have to take their word for it. Hopefully someone will respond for you. :blush:

3

Hi @bubblerookie

I just dropped you message with helpful tips based on my experience.
Happy to have a live chat with you. :smiley:

4

I don’t have direct experience hiring agencies, but maybe some of my previous experience might be relevant.

I’ve had a couple of lives:

  • an Agile consultant: I supported clients looking to hire agencies and freelancers.
  • a recruiter: I recruited executives for industrial companies

I’ve observed quite a few match-makings – I’m a bit of a voyeur. A few notes I took over the years:

  • Do they ask questions?:
    • for me this is the most critical marker of fit.
    • the best matches happened when the agency / freelancer interrupting and asking questions. Early in the conversation.
    • the questions were truly clarifying questions, not some form of glazing.
    • I used to mark my interview notes with the time when the candidate / agency asked the first question.
  • Humor, openness, and positive: specially (well-balanced) self-deprecating humor. On both sides.
  • Devise a failure mode for the contract: here’s a great article on what I mean.
    • Have a feedback system

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot – you asked about “demonstrable expertise”.
It never mattered. Actually, I think the inverse – the more the client prioritized to match on expertise, the worse it went. It’s not that it doesn’t matter, I think it’s not the highest priority. I believe you should prioritize human fit between the 2 of you. And then curiosity. The candidate might not have the correct expertise, but has adjacent expertise and has shown the ability to learn.

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