The first step towards the success of a tech-based startup is in the strength of its development team. The online business ecosystem is becoming more competitive. With a large number of competitors, it has become important to hire dedicated app developers who can channelize their skills in the right direction to build an engaging product.
The skills of a software developer are directly proportional to the chances of building a successful mobile app or website in the current era. A startup, online business or a conceptual venture needs a talented developer to beat competition and intrigue customers to try it out.
But finding a high-quality remote employee that has the potential to work according to your concept is a tough nut to crack. It is a time-consuming, costly and a cumbersome endeavour. And with the mushrooming of online communities filled with thousands of remote developers, taking the right decision can be a bit overwhelming. Thankfully, there are some steps, checks, and procedures that can help you take the right decision. This blog aims at equipping you with everything you need to find and hire right remote developers for your startup.
Table of content
Why Remote Development?
Hiring remote developers is worth for your venture if you take steps in the right direction.. Globally, startups and businesses have realized the power of remote developing and are increasingly adopting remote development processes. Engaging remote developers have its own set of advantages which include the following:
Continuous Development:
Remote software developer teams work around the clock. As offshore developer teams are from a different time zone, this ensures that your company/startup/product is being built around the clock. Also, remote developer job leads to fewer distractions due to unnecessary breaks and loud office work culture. All this shortens the time-to-market (TTM) span.
Greater Engagement:
According to several industry surveys and studies, it has been proven that remote workers are more engaged than their peers who work in an office. With modern video conferencing tools, remote developers feel more connected than the developers who work inside an office environment.
Suitable Work Environment:
Remote development promotes better work culture- both for remote developers as well as other team members. Software engineer enjoys their own freedom and less pressure. With a remote culture, they are more comfortable to work, which increases their productivity. And as development is remote, an in-house tech talent can work on core activities without distractions or the unstructured environment.
Expands Development Capabilities:
When you go the remote route, you have a greater potential of hiring much-talented dedicated developers at a reasonable compensation. Compared to an in-house tech talent, this leads to improved development capabilities.
Expands Market Reach:
By collaborating remotely with web or mobile app developers in different regions of the world, you are indirectly expanding your market reach. As your hired developers are engaged with your startup closely, they are unpaid brand ambassadors who can promote your product to potential customers in their region.
Things to Consider While Hiring a Remote Development Team
While thinking about hiring an offshore development team for any project, there are some things you must keep in mind. Remote web developer team can really be beneficial if you analyze your requirements effectively, , align your goals with the remote developer’s capabilities and plan for streamlined communication. While going forward with remote development teams, make sure that you take care of the below-mentioned pointers.
Clearly-Outlined Development Needs
Before moving ahead, you must identify your development needs as it will help you decide what kind of resource do you need. You can think of hiring a dedicated remote talent or choose to engage remote freelancers based on your requirement. Also, your development needs will also help you realize how skilled and an experienced developer will be required to complete the development task at hand.
Thorough Remote Developer Screening Process
Hiring technical skills is never easy. You must understand that throughout the development, you will have to share your secrets and expect superior-grade work from a person who is thousands of miles away. Hence, it becomes crucial for you to understand the competence, caliber, and dedication of a remote workforce. Developing a thorough screening process with technical interview sessions will help you evaluate a developer’s capabilities and ensure no shocks at a later stage.
Streamlined Communication Channel
The biggest hurdle in remote work can be faulty communications. With different time zones, versatile task schedules and language barriers, collaborating on a project can be quite a hassle for you if you do not draft a communication strategy and find the right tools. Make sure your internal team and remote team agree on the preferred mode of communication, tenure, tools, and mediums. This will help you be more efficient in managing a remote worker and get maximum results when you outsource mobile or web development services.
Structured Project Timeline
While working with remote development teams, it is essential to create a detailed roadmap that defines the scope and timeline of the project at hand. Instead of being unrealistic about deliveries, it is better to create timelines that both the parties agree upon. While working with remote teams, it is ideal to know more about their countries & culture to understand if any national holiday falls between your project timeline to anticipate delays.
Flexibility & Scalability
It is always better to account for flexibility. When skilled developers comes on-board, they will enrich your project/idea with his suggestions and recommendations. Be a bit flexible in the development approach and make sure that you make the remote team comfortable so that they can think of innovative ways to embed flexibility and scalability in your project right from the beginning.
Why not be scared about hiring remote developers? Battling the Myths & MisconceptionsA lot of startup entrepreneurs and app owners stay confused about remote development phenomenon. They feel that hiring a remote developer would negatively impact their development process. There are many misconceptions associated with the offshore development and hiring remote teams that must not be taken seriously. Let’s look at common myths and why they are not a serious hurdle to your development plans.
Remote development reduces productivity
A lot of companies question a remote talent's ability to deliver according to set standards and say that such teams hamper the overall productivity of an organization. In fact, the reverse is found out to be true by Harvard Business Review. According to a study, offshore workers were found out to be 13.5% more productive than on-site workers and were lesser likely to quit.
Of course, there are some operational hurdles but nothing that cannot be taken care of. By developing detailed action plans, using modern tools for communication and keeping everyone on the same page, efficiency can be achieved without any trouble.
Tackling the Issue
Here are some tips to enhance the productivity of remote jobs:
- Minimize distractions by creating day-to-day task plans and priority schedules.
- Employ automated tools and processes to improve communication and streamline workflow.
- Emphasize on real-time collaboration for information and feedback sharing to minimize bugs and clarify the expectations.
Remote work culture would crumble team spirit
While taking a decision regarding outsourcing web or mobile app development, a lot of companies feel that such a move would negatively impact the work culture and team spirit. In-house employees would become demotivated and it would not be easy to enforce a company’s work ethics on a remote development team.
Remote employees are much more committed to meet their client’s requirements and foster an environment of creative teamwork through modern tools. As they are more focused on gathering positive feedback and reference from their client, they will generally do everything in their control to fit according to your work culture. As they have worked with clients across the globe, they are much more aware of corporate policies and easily adapt to dynamic work culture.
Tackling the Issue
Still, if you feel this issue can be a hurdle, you can take the following steps to minimize this problem:
- Evaluate the remote team closely and diligently during the interviews to understand their view about company work culture.
- Use modern online tools to promote communication and collaboration.
- Build trust organically by promoting transparency across your remote and on-site development team.
Remote development undermines data security
Almost all the companies that are even thinking about the remote route are conscious about data security and integrity of their trade secrets. With a growing number of security breach incidents worldwide, it is natural for you to question the ethics of remote teams. But technology and a series of other steps will help you leverage the benefits of remote computing while keeping your trade secrets and critical business data secure.
Tackling the Issue
- Sign an NDA before engaging a remote development team to protect your sensitive business information.
- Setup 2-factor authentication systems, virtual private networks and establish a proper security hygiene for remote developers to minimize the chances of a security breach.
- Clarify your security expectations and establish procedures to ensure that remote developers always maintain security standards.
Remote development will lead to a communication gap
With an in-house team, it is easier to share feedback, discuss changes or recommend a total revamp. Entrepreneurs feel that with remote teams, it would be harder to be dynamic and best results in real-time. Agile development teams who work remotely solve this problem by investing in communication and collaboration tools that eliminate this issue.
A lot of companies and startups say that working in different time zones makes it harder to be on the same page. But according to studies it was found out that 52% of the remote teams have day-to-day contact with their manager.
Tackling the Issue
- Define a clear development roadmap and come to an agreement about work hours and availability.
- Create a prior meeting schedule/agenda and share it with the remote development team.
- Try to make remote teams a part of your office culture by creating virtual socializing rooms to break the communication barrier.
Remote development reduces productivity
A lot of companies question a remote talent's ability to deliver according to set standards and say that such teams hamper the overall productivity of an organization. In fact, the reverse is found out to be true by Harvard Business Review. According to a study, offshore workers were found out to be 13.5% more productive than on-site workers and were lesser likely to quit.
Of course, there are some operational hurdles but nothing that cannot be taken care of. By developing detailed action plans, using modern tools for communication and keeping everyone on the same page, efficiency can be achieved without any trouble.
Tackling the Issue
- Here are some tips to enhance the productivity of remote jobs:
- Minimize distractions by creating day-to-day task plans and priority schedules.
- Employ automated tools and processes to improve communication and streamline workflow.
- Emphasize on real-time collaboration for information and feedback sharing to minimize bugs and clarify the expectations.
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Remote work culture would crumble team spirit
While taking a decision regarding outsourcing web or mobile app development, a lot of companies feel that such a move would negatively impact the work culture and team spirit. In-house employees would become demotivated and it would not be easy to enforce a company’s work ethics on a remote development team.
Remote employees are much more committed to meeting their client’s requirements and fostering an environment of creative teamwork through modern tools. As they are more focused on gathering positive feedback and reference from their client, they will generally do everything in their control to fit according to your work culture. As they have worked with clients across the globe, they are much more aware of corporate policies and easily adapt to dynamic work culture.
Tackling the Issue
- Still, if you feel this issue can be a hurdle, you can take the following steps to minimize this problem:
- Evaluate the remote team closely and diligently during the interviews to understand their view about company work culture.
- Use modern online tools to promote communication and collaboration.
- Build trust organically by promoting transparency across your remote and on-site development team
Remote development undermines data security
Almost all the companies that are even thinking about the remote route are conscious about data security and the integrity of their trade secrets. With a growing number of security breach incidents worldwide, it is natural for you to question the ethics of remote teams. But technology and a series of other steps will help you leverage the benefits of remote computing while keeping your trade secrets and critical business data secure.
Tackling the Issue
- Sign an NDA before engaging a remote development team to protect your sensitive business information.
- Setup 2-factor authentication systems, virtual private networks and establish a proper security hygiene for remote developers to minimize the chances of a security breach.
- Clarify your security expectations and establish procedures to ensure that remote developers always maintain security standards.
Remote development will lead to a communication gap
With an in-house team, it is easier to share feedback, discuss changes or recommend a total revamp. Entrepreneurs feel that with remote teams, it would be harder to be dynamic and best results in real-time. Agile development teams who work remotely solve this problem by investing in communication and collaboration tools that eliminate this issue.
A lot of companies and startups say that working in different time zones makes it harder to be on the same page. But according to studies it was found out that 52% of the remote teams have day-to-day contact with their manager.
Tackling the Issue
- Define a clear development roadmap and come to an agreement about work hours and availability.
- Create a prior meeting schedule/agenda and share it with the remote development team.
- Try to make remote teams a part of your office culture by creating virtual socializing rooms to break the communication barrier.
Choosing the best candidate through screening
What to ask your remote team before ending up on a decision? As stated earlier, it is important to have a thorough screening process to judge a remote development team’s or freelance developer’s capabilities. Here are some questions that will help you understand a developer better and will assist you in making the right decision.
What is the most ambitious project you have worked upon?
This will help you gauge how self-motivated a developer is. Usually, it is important for a remote developer to be pro-active and stay self-motivated. As you cannot keep on checking on remote teams, you need a person who has a good answer to this question. If he/she has already worked on a strong project, it will help you immensely. At the same time, it will help you understand if the person is able to deliver under pressure and the level of personal commitment towards work.
What’s the first thing you would like to kick off just after on-boarding?
It is highly unlikely that a remote development team will be able to answer this question without having an idea about your offshore development expectation. If you get counter-questions in return, be confident that your project is going to go into responsible hands. A remote developer might ask about your priorities, project scope, and current approach. Once he gets enough information, the ideal developer will give you a properly formulated solution to the question without much fuss.
What excites you most about being associated with my company/project?
With this question, you will be able to understand if the dedicated offshore developer associates with your company’s vision and product or not. If he/she has no idea about this question, you should not think of engaging for a long term. This will help you stay aligned to your ultimate goal and saves several hours post-engagement.
Finding the perfect remote development team to outsource mobile & web development
Now that you are enlightened about the nuances of engaging remote developers, you must be wondering how to find the right web or Mobile – Android or iOS app developer that suits your needs? With so much competition in the industry and hundreds of online platforms, where to go and which country should be evaluated before making the final decision. Well, according to experts, when it comes to remote development- be it mobile app, website or any custom development project, India is the most reliable destination in the world.
With well-developed IT infrastructure, an educated workforce and corporate work culture in place, India has all the traits that one should look for in a remote developing country. To supplement our choice of India as a preferred remote development destination, let us illustrate some points:
Highly-skilled & hard-working talent pool
Indians are known to be hardworking and having refined skillsets when it comes to IT and development, they have been ruling the tech industry for years now.
Flexible engagement models
Indian development teams have some of the most flexible engagement models, making them ideal for emerging as well as well-established companies, worldwide.
Low cost of development
When compared to other offshore destinations such as Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and others, India offers the cheapest development without compromising on the quality.
Full professional English language proficiency
Indians are known to have a fancy for the English language. That is why the developers in India are easier to communicate with when compared to Chinese or Russian developers who have limited understanding, making it harder to communicate your expectations.
Proven Track Record
An entire ecosystem is thriving in India due to outsourcing. Companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and others have proven out to be world leaders in managing the outsourcing needs of global enterprises. This has cultivated an environment of remote working in the country, like no other place in the world.
Everything about a remote development team in India fits into the equation that a startup entrepreneur or a company is looking to perfect. With all these benefits of hiring a remote developer from India available for you to leverage, why go anywhere else in the world with your development requirements. Find an offshore development team in India now and give away your development woes by remembering everything you read in this guide.
When it comes to the decision of choosing a reliable remote development team in India, one should consider engaging with Intuz. Having 10 years of experience in mobile app and website development for global clients, Intuz offers the perfect remote development solutions for startups as well as established conglomerates. Intuz fulfils all the criteria of being the perfect remote development partner as it offers:
- Access to highly-skilled and experienced professionals for DevOps and other IT needs.
- Dedicated account managers for streamlined communication and transparency.
- Proven process powered by an agile approach towards development.
- An uninterrupted communication system to help you engage with a development team as per your convenience.
- Expert project management, tech-based communication channels to speed up the development process.
FAQs related to Hiring Remote developer or company
Why should I hire freelance web or app developers?
Hiring dedicated remote developer for your IT projects can lead to derive several benefits like around the clock work, quick project completion, dedicated and experts’ services which also doesn’t require constant attention and guidance. They have the ability to manage the project by themselves and thus, saves the time of entrepreneurs.
Can you name some good remote web and mobile app development companies?
You can identify remote development companies based on your solution requirements as there are several good companies you can approach to. If you are looking for web, mobile, cloud, blockchain or IoT development solution then Intuz is the one of the best places to go for. It has everything you are considering about like certified developers, expert team members, vast experience and lot more.
What factors to consider while hiring freelance Android and iOS Mobile App developers?
You should consider the time zone they’re working in, at what rate they’re working and also is it on hourly basis or fixed price project, what is the communication method, do they follow agile methodology or not, are they self-motivated to work without much attention and guidelines etc. Apart from these, whether they have strong portfolio or not, what are the projects they have worked upon. This will help you to identify the right person or an organization for your requirements.
What is the per hour rate for hiring expert remote developers?
Per hour cost of developers varies from organization to organization and freelancer to freelancer because they charge according to the economic set-up they’re living into and market rate of that region, expertise one possess, number of complex projects they’ve worked upon etc. Also, the project type and its complexity must affect the fees they charge.
How to hire freelance developers for my project?
Almost all the IT businesses are online now and they are serving international clients. You can search on the search engines, there are multiple and dedicated IT directories, forums and platforms which you can refer to. By reviewing online presence, client reviews and portfolios – you can approach to the particular organization and by detail discussion and plan identification you can hire a good developer. On the other hand, Intuz is renowned IT service provider whom you can contact to discuss your project.
By hiring a remote development team of Intuz, you can stay confident about the success of development activity without any hindrances or turn-offs. So, what are you waiting for? Consult with a remote development expert at Intuz now and kick off your dream project right away.
