Should I Outsource to India?
Ah the age old question. Very simple answer though: (disclaimer, Indians built this site)
NO
NO
NO
of course there are a few exceptions:
1) you are friends with the developer there (and I mean FRIENDS, not acquientances, if the developer isn’t someone you ask about his family then you will get fucked) - i’m friends with the guy who built this site and trust him.
2) You are a techie yourself and can project manage (I also am a technical project manager with over 30+ sites/tech’s under my belt.)
I don’t care how cheap the project is, don’t do it. You will get burnt and hard. The project will be longer than you thought, design will be shitty and it won’t work out well…
Who am I to say this? I founded an outsourcing company and ran it for 2 years. It was based in New Delhi and I will never recommend for people to outsource anything there again unless they follow my rules.
Now there are 2 other exceptions:
- outsourcing is fine for corporate sites if it is cheap, fast and they have good references
- outsourcing is fine for demos and projects under 2k. If its over 2k find the money and build it in the US.
Why is India bad?
- They don’t speak Amercian English
- They are Yes men by nature meaning they say yes and fuck you later. They do not set realistic expectations
- They are too far away for you to come over and ring their neck if they fuck you and they know that
= you can’t sue them (if you do, you’re probably an idiot)
- They have ZERO training in design. Design is an art and a science. Design is a marketing tool. Indians are taught functional design = does not market well. I dare you to name me 3 sites (do not count digg - they are the exception) built in india that are successful consumer facing sites
- they are 1 year behind in technologies. Tech tends to come out of US and Western Europe. It takes time to filter down. Sure they’ll say they’ve done it but it’s probably one programmer on their team did 2 hours of work on that tech once.
- you are being cheap!
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