Girls In Tech

In my last post, I talked about developing the Business Case and Marketing Plan for my celebrity news site, HowLegit?. Once the academic part was done, it was time for the rubber to hit the road and to make the site happen. Out of thin air, it felt like!

Having worked on social networks before, I was familiar with the general framework and basic elements of a web community. In a most un-Web 2.0 way, I sat down with a piece of paper and drew out each page I needed on the site with its general purpose and features. I listed everything that came to mind from “User Profile” (obvious) to “No user search results” (less obvious). This un-techy scrapbook became my guideline for the functionality of the site for our first launch. I realized that it’s impossible to think of everything, and that I would  inevitably be modifying what happens on a particular page as I go into design or development. This is where speed needed to compensate for 100% accuracy.

On to resourcing: Depending on the skill level, time availability and interest of your team, (and depending on whether or not you have a team), you will need to figure out who is doing what. In my case, I had a team of advisers, including an engineer and a marketing guy, who would meet with me weekly, but I needed to outsource the actual work. From how I saw it, I needed a UI designer first and  a team of engineers to start building the site. Because this was a celebrity site, and because the visual elements were tantamount to the site’s success, I wanted to find a designer I could work closely with and meet face to face on a regular basis. I hopped onto our beloved Craigslist and posted a job for a UI designer. I whittled down the project to the pages that would need distinct designing (homepage, submission page, article page, registration, user profile, and template for other pages) and figured the development team could take it from there. I didn’t post a price initially but waited for interested parties to contact me, and give me an estimate based on the project I described to them. Each potential vendor was asked to sign an NDA before we discussed the project in length. A good generic NDA is easily available on the web. I entertained about 6 proposals, and finally settled on an individual, rather than a company, for the price of $2000, to design 5 pages, and deliver the project within a month.

I went with him because of a gut feeling that he understood the look and feel I was talking about. However, it is imperative to support that gut with an iron-clad contract at the start, stating the complete nature of the work, timelines, milestones, payment schedule, and recourse for incomplete work. Most companies will  have a contract,  but when dealing with an individual, you have to make sure you have something that will hold up in court. I didn’t (Mistake number 1). We agreed over email that that the payment would be made in thirds over the month, and we signed a sheet of paper (prepared by him) stating that he had received payment for the expected portion of the work. It didn’t cover me at all for what would happen if he decided he just didn’t want to do it, and changed his phone number and ignored my emails. But I was so wrapped up in the “vision” of the site, that I didn’t think about sealing all the legal holes at the time.

Fortunately, it didn’t get to that. I found that this gentleman was fun and creative, which is exactly what I wanted, but a little irresponsible when it came to deadlines. I played along, believing that these arty types were erratic and giving him the benefit of the doubt since I liked the way the work was going. The real red flag came up when he asked for an advance on the last payment because he needed to pay his rent. I admit to trying to wonder why a man with a family was incapable of planning ahead to make sure basic payments like rent were taken care of and I can’t deny that the thought of his young daughter influenced my decision to help him out. BIG MISTAKE (Mistake number 2). It was extremely unprofessional on his part to ask me to consider his personal problems in our hitherto professional relationship, but it wasn’t necessary for me oblige either. Whether it was out of the compassion that is the plight of women, or what any good human being would have done, I agreed and wrote out a cheque when 1/3rd of the work was yet to be done. Naturally I was concerned that he would take the money and run, leaving me with 5 incomplete web pages and a very bruised ego. He showed up to the next meeting, and the next, but when it came to the delivery of the final product (files converted to html that could be translated by the developers into web pages), I had to chase him up for a month because 70% of the files he sent me didn’t work, and eventually ended up paying someone else to do the final conversion off of a pdf prototype of the pages.

Lesson learned was not “don’t help people out when they need it”, but “make sure that you have covered your own a$$ by documenting what has to be delivered and when”. When I wrote him that final cheque, I should have had him sign a document acknowledging his receipt, laying out expectations of deliverables and timelines, that would hold water had I needed to take legal action. Instead, all I could do at this point was write him stinker emails and contemplate putting my story up on Yelp! (I didn’t, but am willing to share his name with anyone who believes they might be in danger of  hiring him or someone like him).

Next up: Outsourcing – Lessons Learned Part II.

Kaamna Dhawan had a colorful career in corporate America before realizing that the intersection of technology and human interaction is where her passions lie. And no one makes human interaction as fascinating as celebrities do! As the founder and CEO of HowLegit.com, she brings in experience from running 4 successful social networks and a continuing restlessness for learning and entrepreneurship. Kaamna is now seven months pregnant, and just moved across the world to Sydney, Australia, proving that technology has truly removed all barriers against productivity and connectivity. She misses the Bay Area and her interactions with Girls in Tech and secretly stalks the organization through the website and Facebook!