Outsourcing: The Reality (Part Three)
Hi! If you're new here, you might want to register for free email updates. Just use the form at the top of the sidebar. Thanks for visiting The Lucid Blog!
Continued from Outsourcing: The Reality (Part Two)
Company #4…
offered to install the WordPress blog and add a comprehensive range of the most popular plug-ins. The service was provided free if you opened a hosting account through one of their affiliate links. I wasn’t too keen on that idea as I wanted it to be installed on my dedicated server but, after scouring the FAQs, I discovered that it was also possible to pay a one-off fee of $65.
I submitted my order straight away and – finally – I was able to take part in a competent exchange of money for services. The WordPress blog and plug-ins were installed quickly, with no fuss.
The company was ninjaBlog Setup and I can recommend their blog installation service without reservation.
Finally, the project was underway, but I still needed some more detailed customisation. Not to mention an original template design.
I asked ninjaBlog if they were available to do more intensive work and I received a prompt reply explaining that they didn’t offer additional services, but they were happy to recommend someone who did – Joel Williams, the Blog Tech Guy
I emailed Joel and explained what I was looking for – making particularly detailed reference to the feature that I had been previously advised was not possible with WordPress.
The response was swift and comprehensive.
The feature I was looking for WAS achievable and there were actually a number of ways to accomplish it. Joel directed me to an in-depth article on the subject that did indeed explain how this facility could be approached.
I was keen to hire Joel straight away, but the only snag was that he didn’t do graphic design. He recommended a couple of places that did and suggested that I have the template designed first, before he started my modifications.
I was back on the hunt again!
The project should have been completed by now and I had only just got started. In sheer desperation I posted the graphic design job on Elance and set the bidding deadline for just 24 hours.
After selecting the winning bid, the designer went to work and, as arranged, completed the template design (along with several requested adjustments) in just a few days. The finished product was excellent and I was now ready to go back to the Blog Tech Guy and get the modifications underway.
** The graphic designer was Sam Baja (sambaja.elance.com) and you can see the graphics work she did for me at www.thepayrollblog.com **
The modifications took about another week to complete and Joel was instrumental in helping me clarify and work out how to accomplish what I needed.
It had taken three dud companies and three good people to get the project done. OK, it was a little late, but I think the wait was worthwhile.
When it comes to outsourcing, you just have to accept that, sometimes you’re going to hire the wrong person and you’ll have wasted time and money. Don’t beat yourself up about it, just aim to learn from the experience and move on. Next time you’ll spot the deficiencies earlier and the amount of time and money you waste will be less.
Outsourcing is not an exact science, but there are some important lessons that I’ve picked up along the way.
Take Aways:
If you email a company and they don’t respond with a reasonable amount of time – move on quickly. If someone can’t respond to a potential customer quickly, then they are either a slow worker, or they’re oversubscribed and will be too busy to complete your work in a reasonable amount of time.
If a company tells you that what you want to do is impossible and offers no research or technical reasons why this is the case – then they’re either incompetent, or too lazy to try and figure out a solution. Move on.
A portfolio must be a minimum requirement for hiring someone. If they don’t have at least one example of previous work, then don’t even give them a second glance.
If you can find someone with skill-set so broad, they can do all the parts of your project, all well and good. But these people are rare, and it’s even less likely that they’ll do as complete a job as someone who specialises in just one part of the equation. If you can, try and find a way to break up the project into several tasks and then outsource separately. The overall quality will likely be better, and the project will probably be completed faster.
When posting a job on Elance, include a “Password” in your description and ask bidders to include this in their comments when they bid. If the bidder can’t follow this simple instruction, then how likely is it that they’ll be able to follow your design brief? This will help you weed out the people that bid on everything without reading the description (some people do this so they can outsource it on again for a lower price and profit from the difference).
** Thanks to Gary Ambrose for this tip **
When considering bids on your project, look out for people that reference specific parts of your design brief and talk about how they will approach the work – rather than just a generic response. This is a good indication of someone who genuinely knows their craft.
Even better, is when someone asks intelligent questions about your project before bidding. This is, again, an indication of experience and – hopefully – expertise. It may also indicate a seasoned worker who can afford to pick and choose their projects, rather than settling for anything that might come their way.
When creating the design brief to send to your programmer or designer, be as specific as possible. Don’t be concerned about explaining in too much detail – even if it sounds condescending. The recipient will likely be pleased that they don’t have to struggle to work out what you’re looking for. Wherever possible, sketch a rough outline in a graphics editor and include this in your brief.
Try and break your design brief up into individual tasks that the designer can work through. It makes the brief easy to follow and reduces the likelihood that jobs will get missed.
If you want an original graphical theme for your website and you’re unsure of exactly what will look appropriate, it’s acceptable to ask a graphic designer to simply be creative, but you’ll only have yourself to blame if the finished product is not what you’d hoped for. At the very least suggest a colour scheme to build on. I also find it successful to choose a handful of images from Clipart.com that fit the project I’m creating, and then ask the designer to use some of the images as decoration and to create background designs.
Below is the format I use when constructing a design brief in WORD:
Introduction:
(This part remains the same for all varieties of projects)
I like to try and make communicating my requirements to programmers as easy and straight-forward as possible, however, I appreciate that everyone has their own working style. This document is my preferred style but, if you prefer to do things differently, or if you find any of my methods are unwieldy, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Please use this document as a checklist of jobs to be completed. If any sections require further information or if you need to include information or comments upon completion of a section, please add your own text in red.
Where I’ve asked a question, this will be in bold and underlined. Please enter comments on these questions in red.
If you have completed a section and there are no comments to make, please indicate this by using either a strike-through or by changing the font to grey.
When you have completed the tasks, please save this file with the suffix “v2” and forward it back to me. I will then update the file with additional instructions where necessary and return it as “v3” and so on…
Overview:
A brief, one or two paragraph summary of the project)
Log-In Details:
This section usually includes FTP details, but may also require Cpanel log-in, Adsense ID, etc. For security purposes, setup a temporary log-in that can be deleted after the project is completed. Where that isn’t possible, be sure to change any passwords instead.
Layout and Format
This section may include:
- Design (graphics, colour scheme, etc).
- Header (more detailed description).
- Template (layout of website elements such as menu, footer, mouse-over effects, etc).
- Coding (I may want to specify things like CSS, size of pages, scripting language, etc).
Features
This section describes what the website needs to be capable of doing. If it’s just an information resource, then this section isn’t necessary, but you may want features such as a feedback form, a working calendar, a search facility, etc.
Companies Featured in this article:
www.ezy-hosts.com – A whole range of web design services. The quality of the work and communication is excellent and the prices are very reasonable.
www.ninjablogsetup.com – Sure, you can use Fantastico to install WordPress, but if you want to ensure that your:
- permalinks are properly configured
- admin area is protected
- comment spam is blocked
- the best plug-ins and themes are installed and configured…
then you’re better of using ninjaBlog instead. Sure you could spend several hours learning how to do it for yourself but, for the sake of $65, I’d rather spend five minutes hiring ninjaBlog and let them see to it.
A great service and well worth it.
www.blogtechguy.com – A highly professional service for custom blog work with a reasonable hourly rate. Joel’s attention to detail is superb and communication is swift and comprehensive (don’t ever, ever underestimate the value of hiring someone who responds to emails quickly!).
I can also recommend the hands-free maintenance package. Setup a monthly subscription via PayPal and every month Joel will back-up your blog, complete any necessary WordPress and plug-in upgrades, and give you an hour of his time for any fixes, improvements, or advice that you need.
This is perfect for that peace of mind that only comes when you know have someone competent taking care of things for you.
Sam Baja (sambaja.elance.com - http://sambaja.com)
Another designer who knows the value of quick and comprehensive communication!
And, of course, her graphic design work is excellent as well. Be sure to check out Sam’s portfolio on her Elance page.
Takes a bit of getting used to, but don’t ditch Elance just because you’ve had a bad experience. It takes some practice but, once you get the hang of separating the wheat from the chaff, there are some superb people available for hire.
======================
None of the above is necessarily the best way to outsource, but this is what’s working for me so far.
If you have some tips of your own, be sure to post them in the “Comments” for this post.
May 29th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Thanks a lot for the kind review David. I’m glad everything worked out for you.
Your Payroll blog looks great.
May 29th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
No problem Jon - thanks again for your assistance.