Choosing the right technological partner is a tough job. If you choose the right company, you will have a good partner for years to come. Conversely, a terrible company can ruin your business.

Preparation is everything. Investing time in choosing the right partner will be absolutely helpful. The process consists of several stages. You can read about this below.

Preparation

Determine exactly what the goals of the application are. This will enable the product development team to better understand your vision and develop your application to meet all of your needs. Be as specific as possible.

Determine the scope of the project. One of the quickest solutions is to create a product mockup: a visual representation of the functionality of each screen in an application. If you don't know how to create layouts, you can create so-called user stories, which are descriptions of how a user (person) uses a product.

If you have already done any work on your project, please describe the current state of your project. Describe the existing system components and the technologies used to create them. If you know about the technologies used, you can easily select agencies with the right experience.

After you finish creating the models and BOMs, define the scope of work. Do you just need front-end development, back-end development, or both? Need help developing and managing a product?

Choose technology - yes, it's your job. Of course, you can consult with a potential partner, but if you choose the technology for yourself, the list of search companies will shrink.

The end result of the previous two steps should soon look like this: “I want the interface to be developed using the React framework, Ruby on Rails backend, PostgreSQL based database, and AWS managed infrastructure. I also need help with design and user experience."

Make a description of the ideal company, what is called the "Ideal Customer Profile" in sales, including some of the following:

- Price / price per hour
- Country
- Timezone
- Language Knowledge
- The identity of the delivery manager.
- Tools / communication
- Development process structure
- Past projects
- Technologies

Once you're done with these steps, you can move on to the more interesting part.

Do your research

There are several ways to find outsourcing companies:

- Portal research and review (e.g. Clutch.co)
- Google only
- LinkedIn
- Ask your friends for recommendations.
- Search your inbox, maybe some of the companies contacted you with a cold email

Then bring your ideal company description and list 20-30 potential customers that match your ideal company description, technology, and team size.

Visit their websites and browse the case study pages, About Us, and the team page. The website should look professional, have good language, and contain an informative value proposition, the technology they worked with, and previous projects.

You can test their technical skills. See what technologies they use besides Java and request some code examples. Do they have open source projects in their portfolio? Check if they meet your expectations.

Look for similar companies and ask if they've used outside help and ask for an introduction and review.

First contact and impressions. Send an email to the companies on your list with basic information about your project, goals, and a clear call to action. After sending emails, see how companies are responding. There are several criteria for what a good answer is:

- Response speed.
- Language
- Did they ask follow-up questions?
- Has the company tried to arrange a phone call?

There is nothing better than talking to them: Call the companies you like and those who answered with a clear message. During a phone call, pay attention to details, their English, their technical skills, their understanding of your business.


Pay attention to things like their commitment, being open to discussion, and being willing to communicate frequently and honestly about project-related questions and suggestions. This is not easy to test before you start working with a company, but don't ignore it.

All of these factors should indicate if they are really interested in becoming your partner or if they are just another group of developers looking to make money with a crappy idea / app.

In short, the process can be similar to hiring. You decide how qualified the person (or company, if any) is, you evaluate personal qualities and personal skills.