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How to get a good programmer ? (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by cogmind@alien.top to c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space

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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 ?

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[–] palindromedos@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

As has been mentioned here (and only to reiterate it) this is why 'Product Manager' is a role. We are employed to take the business requirements, understand what you're actually trying to achieve with the product (in complete non-technical terms), then put into action a 'project' for the engineers to work with. This includes requirements gathering (which is what you did, but in far more detail so there is no ambiguity, but should also be done as you go in an agile way such there isnt resource wastage on things you dont want/need), project management, customer profiling and research, and prioritisation of what should be done vs what could be done.

There are many options for early stage entrepreneurs to create an MVP, such as no code solutions and also having a technical co-founder, but hiring a freelancer is risk laden, as you've found out.

Hopefully I am allowed to plug here (won't post a link, message me if you're interested), but my company offers just this solution. You sit down with me (a product manager) to truly understand what it is you want to achieve, and then we work with our experienced engineers, using industry best practice to achieve the product you're looking for, within your allocated budget.