I think that the whole ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’ thing is decidedly overblown. I’ve had interactions with a number of men that still puzzle me to this day while there are also women in my life that I get along perfectly well. I honestly think it’s less of a gender issue but more to do with the individuals; you just couldn’t get through with some people, whether it’s in a personal or a professional basis. It is especially hard trying to forge a relationship with someone that is of a very different background, as is typically the case in web development.
Inter-department professional relationships are all something we have to deal with at least once in our lives. Musicians have to deal with the management and legal side of their work, engineers are regularly in contact with the sales department and businesses owners in the 21st century have to deal with web developers because it’s pretty much unimaginable for a business in 2019 to not have an online presence. Managing a professional relationship is hard enough without the additional challenges that come from being in disparate backgrounds, which might make it tricky for the typical business owners to work with web developers.
Technology in everything
For the most part, the fact technology is now integrated with at least 80% of our lives have been a good thing. There’s no denying that our lives have gotten incredibly easier in the past decade thanks to the advent of technology. I could simply open up Spotify and listen to any song that comes into my mind, getting a ride to the airport is as simple as opening Uber and ordering a car with payments being handled directly within the app and having a face-to-face communication across the Pacific is as simple as opening Skype and finding the right time.
What is often lost among this progress is that the public are now required to interact with technology 80% of the time. Driving used to be much simpler but right now, we’re seeing cars with so much on-board technology that digital touchscreens are now a common sight. Again, this is not a bad thing but for people who aren’t used to this new normal, it would take some time and effort to readjust. Sadly for these people, the world isn’t going to wait for them and even if you somehow believe that your business doesn’t need an online presence, the world does.
Having a presence in the various social media platforms available online is all well and good but relying on your business’ Facebook account is akin to running a business on your parents’ garage, it doesn’t exactly help lend credibility to your business. What you need is a legitimate, professional website but having a website made for you isn’t as easy as ordering from Uber, especially for someone without a technical background in web development. To help your business safely navigate the world of HTML and Java, here are 4 tips to help you work better with web developers.
Know the specifics of what you’re looking for
Even if you’re not well-versed in the technical language, you have to know exactly what you’d want your website to look like and how it functions. To be able to do this, a healthy dose of opposition research is in order. Start identifying other businesses and websites in your industry and/or those that performs the same functions that you’re looking for. For example, it is possible you might stumble upon an e-commerce website for fashion items that might carry certain functionalities you deem useful even if you doesn’t exactly work in the fashion industry.
Having a rough picture of what you want your website to look like is important since it could help facilitate communication between you and your would-be web developers. Instead of you grasping at straws on something that you don’t even have much knowledge on, you could simply show them what you’re looking for and start the conversation from there. Web developers work better when they have something concrete to rely on as well, so this would be a win-win situation for the both of you.
Ask them to explain the basics to you
This isn’t just for your benefit, by asking prospective web developers to explain the basics of web development, you could also gauge which candidate have the capability of explaining what they do using everyday language. The mark of mastery in any field is when the practitioner is able to plainly explain what they do using common languages and analogies. If one of your candidates can’t explain what they do without the use of complicated, technical jargons and insider language, you might want to continue your search.
Defer to their better judgment
Let’s get this out of the way; the reason why you need to hire web developers is because you believe that they’re better at web development than you do. Well, what you have to know is that you also have to act like you believe this to be the case. If during the course of relationship your web developers gave you some advice on how to best proceed, heed them in good faith and always take them under consideration. Remember, they’re better at this than you do and it’s not a bad idea to defer to their better judgment from time to time.
Don’t afraid to be the decisive
On the other hand, just because your web developers hold considerably more knowledge than you do, this doesn’t mean that you have to be the doormat in this relationship. If during the web development process, something isn’t sitting right with you, speak or forever hold your peace. Be direct about what’s rubbing you the wrong way but always try to be specific about your complains instead of simply saying vague, ambiguous things in the way of ‘I don’t like X’. Remember, the client still holds the final decision on the website so it’s fully in your rights to complain, as long as your complaints are reasonable.