Design your way

There is no doubt that choosing a coding agency to develop your website is the most difficult part of the entire project.

The decision you make can cost you time, money, and a lot of stress if you don’t know how to choose the best team for you.

If you don’t know the right criteria before you start looking around, you may settle for a team that does not understand your needs, ignores your suggestions, and lacks communication skills.

What you need in order to avoid this huge mistake is a simple checklist to take into consideration when you’re assessing an agency. If they fail even one point on this list, it’s time to move on and look further.

Here are the 4 criteria to keep in mind if you want to hire a reliable development agency.

#1: They must have an impeccable record

Before you contact any agency, check out their portfolio and client reviews.

If you like their previous projects and feel that your website could fit right in their catalogue, it’s worth going one step further – looking for testimonials.

Look on their website, but also on forums, or simply ask around. Happy clients are a sign of good work ethic.

Another important quality you should seek is transparency. A perfect example of agency that values transparency is Xfive, with an impressive 10-year experience on the market:

“We believe that being fair and transparent on every stage of the project brings the best results. It’s one of the main reasons that over 80% of our clients return to us with another project and many of them are a long-term partners” says COO Milosz Bazela.

#2: You must decide on your demands first

The best way to select the best agency for your needs is to write down your demands. Think about all the requirements of your projects.

Do you need a highly experienced team of developers or will medium-level coders do the job just fine?

Is your deadline tight that requires a big team to finish your website on time? Or can you allow a small team of great coders to take their time and work with you every step of the way?

Do you need top-notch technology or will a steady old one do the trick? Sure it’s impressive to use the newest technology on the market, but sometimes it may not be the right one for your project.

Milosz describes this situation: “It is always important to find a proper balance between hype and reliability. Our developers are opened to new technologies, they love to learn new things as to stand still is to move back. However, not every technology that is getting hype is proper to real customer’s needs. It’s our job to find the right solution, that will be both cost effective on one hand and right for the project’s size on the other.”

#3: You should select 5-6 agencies for comparison

Make a shortlist with your preferred agencies and go through another round of crucial criteria.

Take into account the estimates of time and budget, their work procedures and their approach on a partnership.

Also, assess how well they communicate with their clients and what type of consultant skills they have. Never go for yes-men, but for professionals that can give you insightful advice for your business.

Observe how easy it is for them to understand your personal vision on the product. Joseph Kurian, CEO of 249 Labs, who has over two decades of experience, said:

“After receiving excellent referrals, I spoke to 3 development companies. After exhaustive research and conversations my comfort level was most with Pawel, Xfive’s Project Producer.

He understood exactly what my vision for Open Lantern was, understood how his team could help deliver what I needed and had excellent communication skills. In addition he’s a good guy and very easy to talk to.

Based on the competence the team showed and the favorable pricing, we decided to go with a smooth transition from design to development and I knew that Xfive would be the right partner for 249Labs & Open Lantern.”

#4: You must pay attention to the tiniest details

Paying attention to details from the very first conversations will give you a good idea about how the agency treats their clients.

Make sure you don’t miss the following red flags:

• They don’t consider deadlines important
• They ignore your e-mails or phone calls
• They don’t respect your ideas and concepts
• They don’t follow the brief you provided
• They don’t understand what you ask of them
• They don’t come up with solutions and opinions
• They approve of what you say, but act otherwise

Here’s how Xfive handles first negotiations with their clients, for example.

“It’s always good to have a brief and a documentation, but let’s be honest, it’s not always possible to have such clearly defined scope. Of course the more precise a customer is, the more we can focus on just project management and development and be cost and time effective.

But we can always advice best solutions based on our experience with variety of projects of different sizes and complexity. For startups we usually suggest an “agile” approach and encourage customers to cooperate with our team as much as they can.

Of course, Xfive’s developers and PMs are a part of the team, but it is a customer who has his own vision of the innovative product/service that he wants to introduce to the market. That’s why defining the scope and the size of the project is an important part of the whole process”, declared Xfive’s COO, Milosz Bazela.

Let’s make a short summary of the main criteria you need to take into consideration when you’re looking for a coding agency: checking their record, writing down your specific demands, making a shortlist for the final selection, and keeping an eye on revealing details.

About Xfive

Xfive is a coding agency with 10 years of experience on the market, a team of dedicated professionals, and a long list of happy clients that are always treated with care.

They offer solutions for agencies that want to extend their capacity for PHP and Ruby on Rails, front-end, or WordPress development.

Xfive have worked for individual clients, small or mid-sized businesses, but also with big brands like Microsoft, Twitter, FOX, Ebay, Threadless, and Rogers Media.

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