Working with a partner
How to choose a software development partner
The short answer
Choose a software development partner by how they reduce risk, not by how much they promise. Look for a team that challenges the scope, explains what it would remove, tests the riskiest assumption first, gives you ownership of the code and data, and has shipped and supported products of its own.
Ask what they would remove
A strong partner reduces scope before adding to it. Ask which parts of your brief they would cut from the first release and why. A team that accepts every feature without challenge is optimising for the size of the project, not the outcome.
Ask how they test the riskiest assumption
Every product rests on an assumption that could sink it: users will change behaviour, the data is good enough, the integration is possible, the model is accurate enough. Good partners find that assumption early and design the first release to test it.
Check who owns the code and data
You should own the source code, the infrastructure accounts and your data from day one. Confirm that the repository, cloud hosting and third-party services sit in accounts you control, and that nothing depends on a proprietary framework you cannot take elsewhere.
Look for products they have shipped and supported
Building is different from operating. Ask for products the team has launched and kept running: how they handled support, outages, app-store review, privacy and updates after launch. A partner that runs its own products carries the same consequences you will.
Ask how they use AI
AI should be used where it improves the outcome, not as a default. Ask where they would avoid it, how they would evaluate it, and what stays deterministic. Vague answers here usually mean vague architecture later.
Questions to ask in the first meeting
- What would you leave out of the first release?
- What is the riskiest assumption, and how would you test it?
- Who owns the code, accounts and data?
- What does support look like after launch?
- Where would you not use AI in this product?
- Which of your products could we look at today?