How do you all go about hiring freelancers and contractors?
I'm looking to hire a designer to design the brand for my app and to also come up with a style system for it. For good results is it as simple as going to upwork and hiring someone or is there more to it?
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One thing I've learned while hiring freelancers is to give out a small trial over asking a bunch of interview questions. There are always 'sweet talkers' and often they're not the doer types.
Big +1 to this advice!
Small, concrete, and clearly defined projects are great for weeding out people who don't even follow the basic instructions. I look for the person who follows the spec but also asks good clarifying questions and/or suggests a way they could go above and beyond and asks if I want them to.
Many of the specifics that I talked about in this article about how I hired a freelance editor can be applied to lots of roles, hopefully it's helpful for you OP!
This is the best approach I find too. Give them a small sample assignment. If you're going to have them working on a large project, make the first assignment the first thing they'd need to tackle if they were hired.
You can see how each approaches the sample, and move on from there. This is what happens if your hiring an engineer. They get a test project, and if it goes well, they move on to the next round. Hiring a writer or designer is virtually the same process.
Hi Victor - I haven't hired through upwork but I've hired many freelancers in the past, including brand designers.
First thing, there are some new services around like www.logology.co by @dagorenouf that you can check out for logo services.
I found my app designer on www.workinstartups.com by putting an ad out. Its a good way of connecting with lots of designers and seeing if any are a good fit. Perhaps there's an equivalent startup community jobs platform where you are.
Most freelance designers have pages on www.dribbble.com and www.behance.net so that's also a place to search.
Once you find a good fit, I suggest agreeing fixed prices for each milestone: 1) brand logo + style system 2) app UI design 3) handoff to developers
Justin
LinkedIn is better
avoid upwork. i recommend leveraging linkedin networks and specific niche job boards (eg. contentwritingjobs). we use an automated application form with integrates to a monday board.
application form asks the following: name, experience, 3 x links to published samples, monthly capacity, opinion on [niche – we ask for opinions on content marketing].
the opinion section immediately tells you if they can walk the talk/fit with your company's attitude.
good candidates are sent an automated email to book a meeting, 15min face to face to ask questions + gauge character fit.
then we do a paid trial. then we onboard.
hope that helps :)
I have hired one designer for my product: https://nextlessjs.com
I tend to avoid marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr, I usually contact directly if there are available for work. It's definitively time consuming but you'll find better designer for a cheaper price.
Coding isn't my issue, I'm a software engineer, I can make a website. My problem is making something beautiful. I do have a lot of web designer friends but I'm hesitant to reach out to them.
I wouldn't recommend site like Upwork if you can avoid it. Those tend to be a race to the bottom for more skilled and experienced professionals. If that's all you can afford, then go ahead, just be temper your expectations.
If you want to find a good designer, your best bet would be to ask for recommendations, particularly from people you know and trust.
You can check our https://www.designcrowd.com
Get a lot of options and only pay for what you want.