- Find others interested in development (Seth)
- Answer questions about software (Luis)
- How to communicate with developers
- Product coming to market, need help upgrading software
- Understanding how to measure cost of development jobs
- What’s involved in maintaining software and cultivating happy customers (after launch)
- What does the community have to offer, technology specific
- What does the community need in their developer skillset, promote open source
- Corporate technology drives cost down because of not having to rely on unreliable sources
- Open source is good because it’s FREE and community driven
- Let’s skip this conversation..
- Small businesses can’t access developers as a commodity like larger corporations
- How can you hire developers? How do you know what value you’re getting?
- How can you know if a developer knows what they say they know?
- Skills assessments help filter through possible developers
- Skills assessments don’t always filter accurately though
- Technology moves faster than education, what do we do about that?
- Get someone who has stake in the company, not just a hired gun
- They will care more about sustainability, and quality, instead of just getting it done
- Forget about the technical stuff, focus on what you know
- A good developer is going to help you understand what the best decisions to make technologically are, not just build what you ask
- Go on merit, trust the character in the person, since you can’t judge their technical skills
- Specify the user experience, what should the end user see and be able to do
- Feedback! Analytics! Support!
- Ongoing development, it can't be static
- Maintenance contracts for ongoing development, ensure you have someone to push your software forward