Hunt for a GoalsWon developer

To recap the story so far

  • 14 applied
  • 11 did a phone interview (3 no shows)
  • 5 were invited to a paid test
  • 3 completed the paid test (2 dropouts)

For the paid test I asked them to take 2 days to code a React Native prototype with as much as they could fit in time, and 3 delivered a test app which I spent yesterday trying out.​

The decision!

All three did well but one, Raj got quite a bit further - implementing the basics of the Today, Prior Day, Coach Chat and Profile screens (using dummy data for now)​

A first look of the app

In chatting he was friendly, open minded and proactive eg- suggesting an alternative navigation which is much better than my original idea. To cap it off, he's an independent freelancer, which I prefer to going via an agency. The choice was clear.​

So good news is that this little startup now has a developer! 🙌​

‍Next step

Raj will start tomorrow so need to breakdown the frontend (client app) spec and prioritize tasks in a Trello board etc.

The main decision for this week will be develop mobile app first or do web app also in parallel. Mobile only is faster, but we will need a web version at launch so we're leaning towards parallel to cut rework time later.

Anyway, pretty stoked about this week's milestone!

Til next...

Simon​

ps - though not cheap, I really like this approach of paid tests, gives a chance to preview how a freelancer will work and engage. I think I'll keep this going eg- we'll need a designer soon etc‍