How to Hire a Programmer
Derek Sivers offers some excellent advice on hiring a programmer, though three of the first four steps can be applied to almost any creative endeavor in which you are hiring outside expertise. Those steps are:
- Reduce your big idea to “Version 1.0”. What is the “bare minimum that would make you happy, and people would find useful.”
- Write a simple overview of what it does.
- Break it up into milestones. (Approximately a day’s work)
It’s sobering to think about how many projects I’ve come across which only communicate a few vague adjectives such as “cool” or “cutting edge” to the designers and programmers. If nothing else, start with Derek’s advice.
