HNers - if you have used freelancers or an outsourced dev shop to do dev work building out an MVP of your product, what lessons did you learn? What sites did you use (except Upwork). Any recommendations?
Define what you need done in the most granular detail possible. Have a written specification document, if possible. This helps you figure out who you really need to hire, and makes tracking progress much easier.<p>Ask the right questions before hiring. Learn enough about the subject to ask good questions. Ask how they would solve an adjacent problem.<p>Set checkpoints for the contractor's work. Have the dev build something partial that you can test. Build another and test it. Integrate them and test them. Wash, rinse, repeat.<p>Learn the language, or else. You could get frustrated and waste time, or you could get fleeced. You can't effectively communicate with an engineer figuratively speaking another language.<p>And communication is everything, especially for remote work.