Steven Trwoga wrote to me with a perfectly reasonable question:
I have an idea for a website I would like to have built. I believe it would fall into the category of “large project”.
I have spoken with, and been quoted by some web design agencies in the UK. However I am not convinced by what I am being told in terms of what can be built and cost.
I have no experience in web design, but I have spent a lot of time reading to help me grasp what can be done and to get a sense of the scale of the project.
I find it to be a minefield trying to find a web designer (or team) by just using search engines.
What advice could we give Steven?
I certainly know some web design agencies. I’ve worked with Sparkbox recently and that was pretty great. Just last night I met with some folks from Graydient Creative where I live here in Milwaukee and they seemed like good folks. In the UK I think of Clearleft.
There are thousands more.
But first, this reminds me of a current situation I’m in. I want to redo the front porch on my house.
I know what a porch is, but I don’t, like know about porches. I don’t have a good grasp on what porch renovation costs. I don’t know exactly what I even want, other than that my current porch looks kinda crappy and I want to make it more beautiful and more useful.
So I’m in the position of hiring some kind of porch company. Are there porch companies? All I can do is web search for stuff and ask around. I have a few leads, but I’m not even equipped to evaluate who is a good lead and who isn’t. I’m going to have to do a lot of meeting and talking.
We can probably look at our situations similarly.
Do you have a plan?
Two things: a vision for what you want to do and a budget.
You think that this new web project is a good idea and will benefit you.
But how firm is that vision? That might affect who you hire. If I had full schematics and blueprints of the exact porch I wanted, I’d probably be hiring a construction company who just exactly complies to my firm plan.
In my case, I want a porch company that guides me through a process. I don’t know exactly what I want, so I want to be guided there, involving me in that process.
If you have a mockup and exact plan of what you want, you should be upfront about that when hiring an agency and you are hiring them to build a thing you have a firm plan for. Some may be into that, some may not. “Discovery” and “research” are a big deal to some agencies, and aren’t into jumping into projects where they don’t use the full process they normally use and believe in.
How do you know exactly what you even want?
You’re thinking website, but maybe when you explain your idea to an agency, they think native app. Are you open to that? Maybe what you’re doing, a Facebook Group is actually what makes more sense. Who is using this thing? Why? Where? How?
Hopefully the agency can guide you through the choices you’ll have to make.
Like I said with my porch, I don’t know what I want. I hope they can show me other interesting porches. I hope they can tell me what considerations people normally have with porches. I hope they can use their experience to make smart decisions on my porch that I would have never thought of. Does my water main come in under my porch? I have no idea, but I hope they do.
How do you know which things affect cost in a big way and what doesn’t?
I don’t envy this position.
I know that with my porch, the materials are going to have a big effect on cost. Different types of bricks; different types of wood. It’s the same amount of work to lay cheap pine slats or lovely cedar planks. That, I understand.
With web work it’s so much harder to wrap your head around.
A static website is a long way away from a customized CMS is a long way away from a site with public users that processes data in some custom way.
I imagine my porch will have cost variables that I don’t even understand yet. Maybe scheduling is a big deal? Maybe the existing porch factors in in a big way? Maybe access to the porch affects what kind of equipment they can use and that’s a big deal. I don’t even know yet.
I hope we get to work with people who can explain these things to us very clearly.
How do you know they are any good?
I guess we’ll have to look at their portfolios.
Just as importantly, I’d like to feel like they are strong communicators, have my best interests in mind, and come recommended.
Will the result be drastically different depending on who you choose?
Probably! Isn’t that scary? I know it is for me. We can’t A/B test entire projects. We’re going to have to do our due diligence and then trust our gut and go for it.
What would you suggest?
Do you have more considerations for Steven? Recommendations?
I have a few thoughts.
First, don’t be afraid to iterate. Build the Minimum Viable Porch (MVP) and engage your users to help you understand what kind of porch they want to you to build. You really can’t know everything your site will need from the start, so if you can find a way to start smaller, you have a chance to test your business proposition, and how you partner with the agency. Maybe even have them create just a landing page for your business or product or service to see if you like their design sense and how they respond to your input.
Find a way to reach your target first, before you have your website, posting on social media (or on forums like this). Let people know your expertise in addressing the problems you’re in business to solve. Maybe you create a “freebie” download aimed at your target that can prompt them onto your email list.
You might even find you can create a thriving business without a “big” website. Don’t forget most online activity has moved to mobile.
Second, no business exists in a vacuum. Make sure you have a clear target for your business and check out what other businesses are doing online that have a similar target. Typically, it’s functionality rather than design that adds to the price tag, especially if it’s custom.
For example, a membership site with a learning management system and community features can add to the price tag vs. a content-focused site, but there are plugin providers who are bundling those features in turnkey solutions. So that’s different than creating new kinds of functionality that need to be coded or cobbled together. If there’s a site that’s doing what you want to do, it’s worth exploring how they chose to do it.
If not, I’d double-check my business proposition.
Finally, there are networks of entrepreneurs, meetups for startups, and other ways to find answers, recommendations, referrals, and guidance — like asking here. You’re already ahead of the game because you’ve shown a willingness to ask questions and get help. People want to get involved in cool things, so ask for what you want and you may be surprised. You don’t have to do it alone and, as you’ve no doubt realized, you simply can’t anyway.
Good luck!
My #1 recommendation is to talk to multiple agencies/consultants. The more, the better.
I’ve been engaged to heal some train-wreck websites/apps, and they all had one thing in common — the business owner/decider only talked to one agency.
I would advise strongly against talking to more than 3 agencies.
Why? Because good agencies will be busy and they will prefer to be spending their time creating things than doing pitches when they only have a 1/10 chance of winning them. They’ll have the confidence to spot a timewaster and move on.
This sounds like a complicated project and any pitch process is going to need to be a consultative one which is going to take time. Even big agencies don’t have infinite resources so will not give you their best if they feel it is not going to lead to anything.
Somebody below suggested hiring a good agency to do a discovery project to help you write the specs and decide on a scope for the project. This is great advice! You’ll get the best work out of them if you’re paying for their time.
However, be aware that this should not involve producing final visual designs, ux design or making technology choices and then taking them to a new company. The company you end up using might have strong opinions on those things and you don’t want them to feel hamstrung from the beginning by another consultants choices.
As Parker says, test your market!
Don’t go buying a £200k website to fit an idea that might not be viable. If your first thought on that was (A £200k website?), then your idea is nowhere near as large as you think it is. That is not a lot, and while for one project it could be towards the larger end of the single-project market; it’s nowhere if your site has lots of content, or advanced theories.
Also STOP trying to have more than a cursory opinion on what the site technologies should be. This should be one of the last, least important things you consider. You should not be involved in the work on the ground if you are not an expert; wait until meetings, which you might want to schedule more often if you think there will be problems. Ask yourself this; “Are you really that bothered how you get to success, as long as you reach it?” I’d also suggest ignoring the books, as it will take too long to get to know anything substantive, they could be out of date; and being too opinionated without the experience and skills is going to cause problems.
I Spoke to a wonderful developer that created what I thought was a brilliant HR system, that needed some help brining his product to market. He built first, then took his idea to others. He had no idea the size of the market, how to sell, who to talk to. In the end they had him over a barrel, and he had to return to work as a developer.
A Business, and business development, is oceans away from the ability to code, or conceive of ideas. Who are your users? What do they need? Why chose you, out of all the other potential providers? How can you add value? What is the maximum value of your solution to the customer? Who can help you on your journey? All important questions; address them, and let experts fit the technology to the answers, help you explore, and if you can build as much in-house as possible.
I think the more interesting point here is that he is having conversations and getting some quotes, but is not confident in the information he is receiving. Perhaps it’s a scope problem – similar to “what does a porch cost” vs “what does this porch cost on my house”. Maybe engage someone do a discovery project and write some specs for you – that would put you at least get you a point of reference for quotes.
As a non-tech client you can’t really evaluate if what they tell you is true. So you’re in danger of falling for the guys with the bold statements. Don’t do it. I’ve done it, I’ve been burned. Seriously. Don’t do it! You haven’t really talked about all the facts, but they tell you “it’ll be no problem”? Leave. They’ll do everything and more for considerably less money than others? Leave. They have only one programmer for development & client support? Leave. Overpromising has become such a big problem these days.
I would like to say that software doesn’t look like a porch, a kitchen, or a building in general.
It’s quite more complex (not complicated, just complex) and it comes with a lot of unexpected opportunities that are hard to predict.
Probably the “build the smallest thing you need, and test it” it’s still the best approach.
Probably you don’t need a webisite just for the sake of having a website. You want to run a business (or do any other kind of jobs) on top of it. Basically, you want “to hire” a website for providing an interface to your service.
Giving that, you should keep the focus on building the (correct) service, instead of the (correct) website.
My tip – don’t work with big agencies. They push their work to subconttactors, like my company. Working with big agencies is just waste of money. Wanna be treated with respect? Wanna responsibility and engagement? Wanna quality? I can deliver it.
Web and Mobile apps – hungrycherry.com
That’s a VERY sweeping statement.
I used to work for a big agency and we did not send ANY of our work to subcontractors. A client can merely ask an agency is they outsource work or not. All those qualities you listed can also be delivered by a large agency, freelancer / whatever.
Robert, I agree. But I see more and more agencies going the “easy-way”
This is a pretty good guide to some issues you’ll face. https://abookapart.com/products/youre-my-favorite-client
This point is of particular interest if you already have a design in mind and just need some developer to build it.
The post says:
When comparing designers, you can see which designs in the portfolio look best to you. The same cannot be said for comparing developers, if you’re a non-developer. You would have to conduct much more rigorous tests to see if they do their job.
Can you zoom in and out without making the page look wrong?
Can you resize your browser window left and right without making the page look wrong?
How fast does the page load?
Is the page usable without JavaScript? (This may not be a requirement for your site or theirs, but if it works, it could indicate that the developers are serious.)
Does the page work in all browsers (FireFox, Safari, Chrome, and IE)? Does it work back to IE9? If you know you need IE8 (or less) support (don’t assume that you do, by the way) , that will require a lot of workarounds, and you need to know if the developers can do it.
Does it work on iOS and Android? How about older versions?
Is the page screen-reader friendly? This is one of the trickiest things for a non-expert to check. Apple products come with VoiceOver. On Windows, you may need to install something like NVDA. (I’m not an expert on this. If somebody can give a better explanation or better advice for this, please do.)
Does the page use good SEO practices (semantic headings, etc.)? This is the hardest thing for a non-expert to check. There are some free SEO checkup sites may help evaluate, but automated checks are sometimes inaccurate, and might not even be up-to-date with modern search engines. (Ditto previous note: I’m not an expert on this. If somebody can give a better explanation or better advice for this, please do.)
(And for the record, I have met salesmen for agencies who were great communicators, but had little understanding of technology, and thus would tend to oversell their agencies/products. @Sebos is spot on with the danger of guys who can make bold statements.)
I suggest an approach where you don’t jump into building the site right away. Instead, maybe investigate your website idea first with low-cost, quick-turnaround solutions like wireframes, or even pencil and paper mock-ups. These you could even do yourself, using tools like Powerpoint or Keynote. Just create a landing page, if that’s all you can do. Or, if you don’t feel confident sketching out your ideas, write an outline of the site, what it does, who uses it, when they use it, main features, etc. In some way, give some form to that idea, and put it in front of some trusted peers for feedback. Get a sense of what it is you really want to build and why. This is basically user testing and validating your idea – two smarts things worth doing. Really figure out what it is you’re building. Then, when you’re ready to hire that agency, you even have something to show them to start the discussion. Good luck.