How to choose a software development studio

Choosing who will build your app or your system is the most important decision of the project, more than the technology, more than the budget. A good team turns an average idea into a product that works. A bad team turns a great idea into lost months and code nobody wants to touch afterwards.

The problem is that from the outside they all look alike: nice websites, client logos, promises of agility. This article is a list of what actually sets one vendor apart from another, with the concrete questions to find out before you sign.

Start with what you want, not with what they offer

Before asking for a single quote, write on one page what problem you want to solve and for whom. Not the feature list: the problem. "Let my customers book without calling me", "make inventory match the warehouse", "let a user do X without Y".

That page is useful for two things. The first is comparing quotes for the same thing. The second, more important, is seeing how each vendor reacts. A good studio will ask you questions about the problem and propose cuts. A bad one will say yes to everything and quote the full list.

A good vendor asks you questions and proposes cuts. A bad one says yes to everything.

What to look for in the portfolio

The portfolio is the evidence. But you have to know how to read it:

• That the projects exist and can be used. Open the apps, visit the sites. A portfolio of images without links is a gallery, not evidence.
• That they resemble what you need. Not in industry, but in kind: if you need an operations system, look for operations systems; if you need a consumer app, look for that.
• That the design shows. Not "pretty": that it is understood at first glance. Open a project and try to use it without anyone explaining it. If you can, that team knows product design.
• Who actually built it. Ask which part the studio did and which part belonged to another vendor or the client. It is a normal question and the honest answer says a lot.

What to look for in the team

This is the biggest difference between vendors, and the one least visible on a website.

Who will look after you and who will build? In many agencies the person who sells to you never shows up again. Ask who will design and who will code your project, and ask to talk to them.

Are strategy, design and development on the same team? When design sits in one place and development in another, decisions get lost in translation. A team where the same people think through the product, design it and build it makes decisions faster and better.

How big is the team? Bigger is not better. A fifteen-person team coordinates in meetings that you pay for. A small senior team makes decisions in minutes. We wrote about that in why you no longer need a 15-person team to build software.

Have they taken products to production and maintained them? Launching is half. Asking what happened after launch on their projects tells you whether they know the other half.

What to look for in the quote

A quote says more by what it explains than by the number. We have a full guide in how much it costs to build an app, but the essentials:

If the price is noticeably lower than the others, ask why. Sometimes it is real efficiency: a small team with no overhead to pay charges less for the same result. Sometimes the scope is different or the team is learning on your project. The answer will tell you which.

The questions for the first conversation

Bring these questions to the first call. They are not traps; a good vendor welcomes them because they allow them to explain how they work.

1. What would you cut from what I just told you in order to launch sooner?
2. Who will design and who will code? Can I talk to them?
3. How will I see progress? How often?
4. Will the code and the accounts be in my name from the start?
5. Which of your projects is most similar to mine, and what happened to it after launch?
6. What happens if I want to change something halfway through?
7. What do you need from me for the project to go well?

The last one is the most revealing. An experienced vendor knows the project depends on you too: on your timely decisions, on your access to information, on your availability to test. If they say they need nothing, they have not done this many times.

Local, remote or nearshore

Today location matters less than it seems, with one exception: the time zone. Working with a team that is awake when you are awake changes the speed of everything. Questions get answered in minutes, not the next day.

For companies in the US and Canada, a studio in Mexico is usually the most efficient combination: the same or an adjacent time zone, real-time communication in English, and a cost that is a fraction of a local agency's. It is the nearshore model: the closeness of a local team with the economics of working abroad, without the overnight delays of offshore teams on the other side of the world.

Frequently asked questions

Is a large agency or a small studio better?

It depends on what you need. For projects that require dozens of people working in parallel, a large agency. For almost everything else, a small senior studio delivers the same quality faster and at a lower cost, because it has no overhead to pay for.

Should I get several quotes?

Two or three, with the same scope document. More than that will confuse you, and fewer will not let you compare.

What if the studio disappears halfway through the project?

That is why the code and the accounts should be in your name from the start and deliveries should be in stages. That way, whatever happens, what has already been built is yours and it works.

How do I know if a studio understands product design?

Use their projects. If you understand how they work without anyone explaining, they do. If you need a tutorial, they do not.

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At tēo studio we work exactly the way this article recommends: written scope, strategy, design and development on the same team, staged deliveries, and the code in your name from day one. If you want to put these questions to us, get in touch.