How to Choose the Right Technology Partner for Building Your Digital Product
What separates a good software firm from one that actually transforms your business
Each founder, product manager, and organization has to deal with the reality of creating their vision into a viable product. Whether it be a platform, tool, or experience—the concept is sound and feels like an opportunity; however, translating from concept to a functioning, scalable digital product is often beset by incomplete or abandoned projects, cost overruns, and teams that cannot collaborate across time zones to complete tasks.
When selecting the company that will develop your product, this is not just a procurement function but rather a strategic decision as well.
Unfortunately, most companies utilize a commoditized mindset toward this selection process as if they were purchasing basic office supplies.
The purpose of the article is to shift that perspective through understanding how technology partners create real value, which questions you need to ask before you sign any contracts, and the differentiating characteristics of the finest digital studios around today.
The Difference Between a Vendor and a Partner
Let's take an unpleasant fact to start with: the majority of Mobile Application Development Companies act as vendors. Vendors take your specifications, estimate the amount of time they will spend on them, and provide you with your source code when finished. If problems arise - such as scope creep, technical debt creating a new feature that does not fix the original issue - at any point in the project cycle, you will be referred back to your specification.
When you have a true technology partner, your partner will challenge poorly defined specifications. Your partner will let you know that an unwanted or unneeded feature does not improve your customer's experience. Your partner will bring strategy to the process, not just completing tasks. When you are building an application that needs to be continually improved - every digital application has this requirement - the distinction of one firm from another makes a tremendous difference.Â
Codeft Digital, a Hyderabad-based full-service digital agency, describes their philosophy as "connecting brands and people" through craft and culture. This use of the word culture demonstrates the agency's understanding of its customers as living and breathing people, not simply as faceless personas represented as PowerPoint slides.
When you are considering any firm - whether a small boutique agency or a large corporate solutions provider - the first thing you want to determine is whether they see themselves as executors (just providing your specifications) or as co-creators (partnering with you).
Understanding What "Full-Stack" Actually Means
"Full-Stack" is often used in conversation to describe an agency (for example, a digital marketing agency), however it should be well-defined so that it does not lose its meaning. When an agency refers to themselves as "full stack," the implication is that they control everything within the product lifecycle.
This means they perform work in all aspects of building a product, including: strategic planning, user interface design, user experience (UI/UX) development, final engineering, cloud infrastructure, quality control and post-launch expansion. If you work with an agency that only handles a few of those areas effectively, you'll be expending a lot of effort attempting to integrate multiple vendors, which is typically where items fail.
A truly "full-stack" digital agency can take you from "we have an idea" to "we have a live product with real users and a roadmap of what's next."
This is vitally important for start-ups, as your early decisions (architecture selection, technology platform, data model) will ripple through your product over the years. Choosing the correct agency requires understanding not only how to write code, but how to develop a scalable solution.
The Hidden Cost of Poor Communication
If you were to ask someone who has had a bad outsourcing experience about the root of the problem, it is highly unlikely they will tell you that it was due to the quality of code provided. More often than not, issues with outsourcing stem from communication breakdowns. Lack of understanding when it comes to requirements, long periods of no communication, and then receiving a product that does not meet the initial premise are common problems for all outsourced projects. Companies experience their confusion in the sales process when teams agree to everything requested and deliver the opposite of what was promised based on those agreements.
Shane Monahan, Founder & CEO of Limor, gave an example of the type of challenges encountered before beginning to work with Codeft. "We previously faced a general lack of quality support, lack of transparency and lack of communication." What changed was not just the output of the project, but the relationship between the two companies. By communicating frequently, in a helpful and concise manner, Shane's team was able to concentrate on working to best utilize the services they provided.
The real value of working with a quality software provider isn’t in just the product they deliver to you – it's also in the mental space these partnerships create for you to grow your business.
When evaluating potential business partners, focus on their communication structure. Are there dedicated project managers? How do they respond to changes in the scope of work? What does the company's feedback process look like? All of these questions are not about administration, but rather, about the culture of the company.
SaaS and Custom Software: Two Very Different Beasts
Many companies often mistakenly view software development as all the same. This isn’t true.
While building a SaaS product that allows multiple subscribers access to a software product at the same time through a subscription model requires an entirely different architectural mindset than building a custom internal tool, it also requires designing your product with the fundamental notion that you have multiple customers accessing the product at once (also referred to as multi-tenancy), managing sophisticated access control, integrating billing, tracking user analytics, creating a product roadmap and balancing the depth of features in addition to providing an easy onboarding experience for new customers.
By contrast, custom software is typically built to meet the specific workflow needs of one organization. As such, the success criteria of the software may be narrower than a SaaS-type, but the complexity of integrating with existing systems is often much higher.
Before an effective technology partner will write a single line of code, they must first understand the differences between these architecture types. They will therefore want to know what your business model is, how your customers are going to use the product, and what features are needed in the product.
Codeft’s offering is SaaS product development as a separate service – not a checkbox, but rather a specialized area of design. This specialization is important; a SaaS design team that has previously designed SaaS products will have extensive domain knowledge to guide the design of your software for the following reasons:Â
1. Knowledge about how to design a trial experience.Â
2. Knowledge about how to ensure that data is isolated for different customers using the same database.Â
3. Knowledge about how to design your software with the consideration that one of your customers may have...
We've been discussing the implications of "mobile-first" for over a decade, but many companies still seem caught off guard in a strategic role regarding mobile. Your users are on their phones; in fact, often they are on their phones only. A mobile experience is not a downsized version of a desktop site, but a completely different interaction paradigm than both the desktop and mobile web.
Creating a successful mobile application takes a great deal of expertise in the native development methodologies (to understand the capabilities/limitations of iOS and Android) as well as having a good sense of what users expect from touching screens. Additionally, the way that performance is perceived on mobile devices is different than on the desktop; where 3 seconds for desktop may be acceptable, it is fatal for a mobile app.
There is also ongoing maintenance involved. Mobile operating systems change constantly; app store terms of use change; and things that worked on devices last year now must be validated and tested against new hardware, and in some cases, may even need to be rebuilt. Mobile Development is not a long-term commitment, but rather an engineering commitment that will require constant effort.
The best-in-class businesses recognize that Web Application Development is not simply one of the many capabilities in their practice, but rather a distinct and specialized capability. As part of your due diligence when looking for a partner to deliver consumer-oriented solutions, take some time to review their mobile portfolio if they have one. Make sure to ask about the status of any applications you find in their mobile portfolio.
What Startup-Focused Development Actually Looks Like
There are two kinds of companies that help with startups: those that occasionally assist startups and those that have developed their entire operation around assisting startups. Startups don't just need engineers; they need a team to work in an uncertain environment and move quickly while still providing a high level of quality. They also need assistance from someone capable of assisting them in making solid technical decisions while they are simultaneously making 50 other decisions.
The startup services or launch packages represent a more focused subset of this expertise than our normal product development process. We do not see product development as simply creating a product to market quickly through a sprint approach; our approach focuses on validation first, to ensure that we can confirm the problem we are solving, to confirm that we have chosen the correct form factor to solve the problem, and, in the case of an MVP, to ensure that the MVP is designed to prove that the problem is being solved in the manner it was intended.
At Codeft, we have a special startup pathway because of this issue. In the early stages of a startup, it’s not uncommon for founders to be uncertain about what they need to create; therefore, the most valuable thing that a technical partner can do for the startup at this stage is to help clarify what is required prior to commencing any coding.
This is an area in which there is substantial crossover between technology consulting and product strategy. By having an excellent consulting engagement, you greatly reduce any risk of requiring months to make changes to your design because we identify and validate assumptions early in the process, test them for validity, and advise you on how to most effectively prioritize your project.
It’s more challenging than ever to sell online, and the technical standard has also increased at the same rate as the level of expectation. Buyers who have experienced an easy checkout process on large companies expect this level of service no matter where they are purchasing from. Slow load times, difficult product searches, broken discounting processes or any of the above will cause customers to shop elsewhere.
To create eCommerce technology that generates sales takes a broad range of skill sets in technical disciplines including: design of a database for a very large catalog of products; integration of payment processing; synchronization of stock across locations; developing customer return policies; and increasingly developing personalization engines that present the appropriate product to the appropriate customer at the appropriate time.
In addition to the technical side of building eCommerce systems, there is also a significant marketing piece. An eCommerce website without a solid new customer acquisition or retention plan is like a store in a deserted area. Companies that create the most value build both sides of the business so they can help their customers establish a store and help them get customers to shop at it.
Cloud Services and Why They Matter More Than You Think
For a lot of organizations, cloud infrastructure is looked at as more of an electrical work than design. While working with the cloud is important, it does not really impact your business strategy. And that is where the majority of cloud strategies fall flat.
The way your cloud applications are built has a direct effect on how much you will pay in costs (both direct and indirect), how reliable they will be and how quickly they will operate. A cloud environment that is not configured properly can cost you anywhere from three to four times as much as it should cost you. If your application was not architected to scale horizontally, it will fail to handle loads whenever you need it most, such as when you have a marketing campaign, launch a new product or when you have spikes in usage over a given time period.
There is more to cloud services than just hosting a website or SaaS. Cloud services today can include everything from managed databases and serverless functions to container orchestration and AI inference pipelines. A technology partner that is staying current with these technologies will help you determine when it is best for you to use a managed service vs. when you should design a custom solution. This can save you 1000s of dollars and headaches in the future.
Other considerations are also important to consider. Data residency, security compliance and disaster recovery should not be treated as an afterthought. These must all be designed from the beginning, especially if your company is working within a regulated market.
Engagement Models: Finding the Right Working Relationship
Not every business has to outsource all their technology functions; equally not all technology partners are the right fit for the company.
Staff augmentation, embedding staff from an outside company into your own, is a good way to provide the necessary scale in a situation where you have strong technical leadership but need additional capacity quickly. The engineers become an extension of your team, working in your process, using your tools and adapting to your culture. You have the flexibility to use them as needed while not having a permanent employee.
Dedicated development teams serve as a good middle ground; a dedicated team working solely on your product but managed and funded by the partner company. Companies seeking to have an intimate fit with their partner while not having to create an internal human resources function for technical staff may find this works well for them.
In those cases where a company is outsourcing an entire project to an external company, defining and measuring success will work well for that level of engagement.
It is important for you as a partner in your vendor relationship to know which of these models you will utilize based on your particular circumstances regarding internal technical ability, project definition, timing, and budget; and a partner who is worth working with should assist you in determining which is the most appropriate model for your situation and not attempt to force you into a model that is most beneficial to them.
Digital Transformation: What It Actually Requires
When it comes to the term "digital transformation", it can often be lost in consulting jargon. In basic terms, digital transformation is about changing the way an organization operates through incorporating digital tools/technologies into its standard workflows.
Digital transformation is not just about implementing new technologies; it is also related to changing how those technologies are integrated into an organization in terms of employee skill-sets, processes, and culture. The organizations that are most successful in making these changes know that implementing digital solutions is usually much easier than helping an organization to adapt its processes, develop new skills for its employees, and change its culture.
A quality digital transformation partner will spend a significant portion of the discovery phase understanding your "current state" (not just from the standpoint of what systems you are using; but also how you make decisions, where you lose information, and what you really need in order to work effectively). The resulting strategy developed as a result of this discovery phase will typically be quite different from what the client originally thought they needed.
What the Best Clients Do Differently
While both partners are involved when creating a successful partnership, ultimately the client has the most influence over the end result. The most successful projects have results that fulfill client expectations, provide positive user experiences or return a good ROI — occur when clients act as their true collaborative partners.
This could mean providing timely responses to questions or decisions. It could also mean trusting your technical provider’s judgment on all technical elements while holding them responsible for the business results of the project. Understanding that scope definition at the beginning of your project is worth much more than any scope changes made after the project launch is very important when determining whether or not you have achieved success through your partnership.
Professionalism, transparency and on-time delivery have all been referred to by Tanmay Andhe, CTO of Credit Repair Cloud, as characteristics of a healthy working partnership. All of these characteristics come from mutual respect and clear expectations — which is what may not be demanded from your vendor partner.
How to Evaluate a Partner Before You Commit
Prior to signing an agreement, consider asking these questions:Â
- Product-related questions: Do you have an example of a product you developed and launched two or more years ago? How has it changed since its inception? If you were to develop that product again, what would you do differently?
- Process-related questions: What would you do if the client's requirements conflict with what you believe is the most appropriate way to build the solution? What does your discovery phase entail?
- Team-related questions: Who will actually be doing the work on this project and how much experience do they have? How do you handle team turnover while you are executing this project?
- Communication-related questions: When will I get a status update? What tools do you use to communicate with each other and your clients? Who is my contact when something doesn't go as planned?
- Values-related questions: Are there types of projects that you will not work on? If so, why?Â
The questions you ask will provide you with information that is valuable in evaluating your prospective partner but equally important will be the types of questions a prospect partner will ask you. A partner who genuinely wants to see you succeed will challenge your assumptions, will challenge your timetable and will want to understand the business model you are using before proposing a solution.
Most projects have potential; however, the best projects have been delivered (i.e., produced something), have customers who love the product(s) produced, and have enabled the company to grow. There is one thing all successful projects have in common: they have built a relay of trust between the client and the project team (whether through the client or the company).
Trust is developed through a variety of experience experiences - the majority of them are minor experiences that continually happen (e.g., on a Tuesday when the project team goes to the client with problems found (that day) earlier in the prior week, or when a partner is truthful about potential risks (instead of hiding it from the client) associated with a decision, or when an engineer points out a design "issue"/decision that may create issues in 6 months but that could have been easier to not point out).
When Codeft refers to their human-centered approach, they are each building and delivering software to humans. In other words, as the software is being built, the team involved can do so in a manner similar to how human beings do things (transparently, accountably, and with a vested interest in what is created and why).
A good partner exists but you must ask good, discerning questions, look at each partner's past performance and look closely as to how they communicated with you before you complete a partnership with them.