How You Can Pick the Best Designer/Developer For Your Business

So, how do you go about hiring the best designer or developer? How can you narrow down the perfect mix of technical ability and character that will best serve your business? Well, the first thing you should acknowledge is that you have to be patient! It’s unlikely the first application you come across or interview you give is going to be your knight in well designed/developed armor … The process may be lengthy, but compromising on who you hire may end up being less cost efficient anyway!

Why do you need a designer/developer?

Developers and designers are online businesses’ lifeblood; designers satisfy a vision, while developers bring it to life. Only those websites that provide the best user interface and user experience will find success. Unique sites that can solve consumer solutions quicker than their competitors become memorable to their customers and are rewarded with greater SEO rankings. If you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors and take your niche’s SEO throne, then yes, you do want to hire a designer or developer. Of course, you must consider whether your business is able to accommodate new expertise financially, strategically and socially. I’ll leave this to you! If you’re wondering which role you should hire first, this article suggests it should be a designer.

What type of designer or developer should you hire?

The terms “designer” and “developer” are very broad. Considering business strategy, it’s important you know all the different types of both and hire those which align with your requirements. Of course, many designers and developers will have expertise outside of what they have labelled themselves, this will usually be mentioned in an ‘additional skills’ section of a resume. Then there will be those that claim they can do it all, which they might be able to, but you definitely need to fact check these candidates to see if they’re practicing what they preach! The two most common types of designers are: 1. Graphic Designers ● Focused on creating digital images: logos, icons, product packaging etcrn● Experienced with Adobe Creative Cloud, Gravit, Affinity Designer etcrn● Still likely to have web design knowledgern● Often unable to give their designs digital functionality 2. Web Designers ● Create functional and aesthetically pleasing websites ● Will bring graphics to lifern● Most can code the basic website layout (HTML5/CSS) Developers are a whole different beast. To go through every different developer and their roles would be a whole different article on it’s own! Thankfully, this has already been done! Simply put, at some stage a business needs both designers and developers depending on how design or development-centric your business is. Consider what amount of each role will be the best productivity-wise. The two roles complement each other: designers make developers more productive and vice versa. Therefore, it’s up to you to decide which role will currently provide the most value.

What Your Selected Candidate Should Have

Proactive Upskilling The best designers and developers are always learning! They are aware of the latest technology or industry trends that concern them. They can also determine what information is worth absorbing and what won’t gain traction. Patience The person you hire should be patient and ensure they understand the methodologies, tools, systems and code before suggesting big changes. This is a common problem when a developer joins a new company with old legacy code. It may be annoying, but it’s probably there for a reason and time spent rewriting everything may not be sensible to make a priority. Having the patience to understand what changes will serve the business in the short term is the sign of a great developer. Communication Skills Communication skills are becoming more and more sought after in these roles. The better a team member can explain their ideas, provide feedback and ask questions, the better they are at executing tasks. Marketing knowledge is naturally picked up through experience and is always a bonus! Self-Motivation Basically, you don’t want to hire anyone who needs to be spurred on to get their work done. Of course, your work culture and environment should value productivity. But, you don’t want to hire someone who just wants to cruise through the day. This avoids the common problem of managers being turned into motivators and will allow a manager to spend their time more meaningfully. A Credible Work Portfolio Your candidate should have an abundant work portfolio. This will often show snippets of projects they’ve worked on with previous clients. Sometimes, examples of their work will not be provided, to protect client confidentiality. This is good! You can still request a small snippet that doesn’t breach the candidate and previous clients’ privacy. Recommendations From Previous Clients This is very important. They should have a proven track record of receiving positive feedback from their clients. If hiring a freelancer, you’ll be looking at client reviews probably rated on a star system. If you are hiring from a design/development company, you’ll be looking at client testimonials. Positive feedback external to the candidate(s) themselves is even better!

It’s recommended to provide candidates with a test

After a hiring team has gone through resume screening and perhaps a few questions over email, you’ll end up with a small pool of candidates. It’s common practice to provide these applicants with a timed test. For a designer this may be developing a small digital image, ensure they provide their drafts and additional notes. If hiring a developer this will be a programmingrntest usually monitored through screen sharing. The great thing about thorough screening and hiring tests is that by the time you actually bring in the remaining candidates for an interview, you’re able to ask very specific questions. This will usually be discussing exactly what they done on working with previous clients, identifying what quantifiable influence they created. Sometimes, you will have a candidate you are 90% on and the interview is just a final expertise and character check. If you’re hiring from a web development team, you don’t have to worry about a hiring test. These companies only accept exceptional talent who have undergone testing to become employed in the first place.. If you need multiple developers, larger companies will offer dedicated developer packages so you can hire an entire team at an affordable cost. One company that has found global success using dedicated developer packages is CodeClouds. For example, you could hire a Magento Developer, PHP developer, project manager and support technician all at once. Large development companies feature a range of speciality designers and developers to choose from, so pick the roles that best suit your business requirements!