Tech for Non-Techies 61. How To Hire Product Teams: Outsourcing vs In-House
Hiring developers and designers to build your tech product is always risky, because as a non-techie, you're hiring people to do things you don't know how to do.
Is outsourcing more risky because you're far away from the team? Or is in-house more risky, simply because it usually costs more?
Listen to this episode to find out.
Learning notes from this episode:
- Always get employees and contractors working on your products to sign over the Intellectual Property to the company. If a person or a firm is refusing to sign an IP Agreement, this is a bright red flag.
- In the early stages of product development, your job is to test ideas, get an MVP out there and get initial traction. The focus should be on doing this as quickly and cheaply as possible, which often means working with an outsourced product studio in a cheaper geography.
- After you've proven market need, you can hire in-house to scale the product.
- Right at the start of product development, you don't know what tech tools and languages you need to build it. Because you won't know what you need in your tech stack, you won't know what skills developers will need. This is why hiring a product studio which has different tech stack specialists will often be the best option at the start.
If you want to delve deeper, then check out the ebook: How to Hire Your Product Team & Go From Idea To App: Guide For Non-Technical Founders.
In the e-book you will get:
- A list of product studios recommended by non-technical founders including a firm I’ve worked with
- A guide on how to set your budget for prototypes, minimum viable product and market testing
- What to do if you don’t have a technical co-founder
- What to look for when hiring a user experience designer
- Difference between development shops, product studios and in-house development teams
- Examples of successful non-technical founders
To watch the full session on video and access learning notes, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get:
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