How to choose a developer or a team: a client checklist (no fluff)
Queries like “how to hire a developer”, “how to choose a software contractor”, or “how to pick a dev team” usually come from the same realization: a nice portfolio does not guarantee predictable delivery.
Below is a practical checklist to separate professional engineering from optimistic promises.
1) First: define 3 things before interviewing anyone
- Goal: what business outcome changes after launch (metric/result)
- MVP: what is must-have vs later
- Constraints: timeline, budget, platforms, integrations
Without this, you’re not choosing engineers, you’re choosing sales skills.
2) Portfolio: how to evaluate properly
Look for risk match, not “pretty”:
- real integrations (payments/CRM/webhooks)
- production support experience (logs, monitoring, incidents)
- roles/permissions, admin panels
- architecture thinking, not only UI
3) Estimation: what is normal vs a red flag
Normal:
- range estimate (X-Y) + assumptions
- module/scenario breakdown
- risk list and unknowns
- iteration plan (MVP -> releases)
Red flags:
- “2 weeks, done” without scenarios and acceptance criteria
- fixed price without scope and out-of-scope
- “we’ll integrate somehow” hand-waving
- no questions about security/load/data
4) 10 questions that reveal engineering maturity
- How do you turn an idea into requirements/spec?
- How do you protect scope and budget from hidden work?
- How do you handle integrations (retries, queues, idempotency)?
- How do you prevent regressions (tests, release checklist)?
- What is your Definition of Done?
- How do you run production (logs, metrics, alerts)?
- How do you document decisions (ADR/README/runbook)?
- How do you communicate progress (demo cadence, reporting)?
- How do you accept work (acceptance criteria)?
- What do you do when timelines start drifting?
5) Test task: when it helps and what it should look like
A test task can help, but it should be:
- short (2-4 hours)
- close to real work (error handling, integration mindset, code quality)
- with clear acceptance criteria
“3 days of unpaid work” is a hiring process smell.
6) Contract and process: protect yourself as a client
Minimum elements:
- scope + out-of-scope
- staged acceptance by criteria
- demo every 1-2 weeks
- transparent access to repo and task tracker
- change request rules
FAQ
How can I spot real seniors?
By how they reason about requirements, integrations, risks, quality gates, and production operations.
Is a team always better than one developer?
No. A team wins only with real parallel work and good process.
What matters most early?
Scenarios, integrations, scope/out-of-scope, and acceptance criteria.
If you want, I can share a short vendor-vetting checklist: interview questions, red flags, acceptance criteria, and how to read an estimate.