Outsourced product development is a viable option for early stage startups. For many founders, this is the only option to bring their business ideas to life.
Are you a startup founder with a tech idea, looking to outsource your product development?
While outsourced versus in-house development is a topic of debate, outsourcing may the only viable option, if you are a founder
- looking to go-t0-market with MVP in 3-6 months and have challenges building a team vis-a-vis time, costs. skill etc;
- not from a core tech background and haven't been able to partner with tech co-founder;
- employed, while still looking to further a business idea, without using the time and resource of the employer
So, how can you make the outsourcing strategy work? What should be the considerations when looking for a company to outsource your product development?
- Check out the founders - Do they have a strong technical background (education, prior employment)? Would they be actively involved in engineering your product? Can you work with them directly?
- Understand the team - How strong is the engineering team? Are they experienced (eg. 10+ years)? How long have they been associated with the company?
- Engineering processes - What is the general philosophy to product development vis-a-vis Scoping, User Experience, System Architecture, Development & Testing?
- Tech - Is the product built on modern technologies? Is it architected for scale? What is the approach to maintenance? What are the general guiding principles?
- Prior work - Checkout their prior work. Are they spread across multiple domains? Do they inspire confidence?
- Costing & timelines - Are they ready to commit to fixed costs and timelines?
- Establish a peer relationship - It is key to have a great relationship with your outsourced tech partner. Are they a group that you would like to establish a peer relationship with? If your answer is no, you are better off walking away.
While there are multiple aspects to a startup idea (the idea, go-to-market strategy, revenue model, execution etc.), a lot of your initial success is dependent on your tech implementation. For eg., you might have executed a great strategy to acquire early adopters; but if the tech is buggy and doesn't provide a great user experience, your efforts are wasted. Identifying reliable business partners is key to success of any business. Startups are no different.
Outsourced product development is a viable option for early stage startups. For many founders, this is the only option to bring their business ideas to life.