What's Wrong with Guru.com?

Most software developers, firms or entrepreneurs will eventually look for sales leads on sites like guru.com where there are jobs-a-plenty -- as well as competitors. This post focuses on my experiences with guru.com as well as other job sites.

First, here is a typical job posting:

I have bought and registered my domain. I already have a webhost. Now i need Someone to program/create my online sporting goods store for me. Im going to need a very appealing site. I will be needing an automatic payment processor that can be set up to take orders from me then automatically purchase the orders from my dropshipper(Wholesaler). There are several other things i will need that we can discuss with your bid. Sorry but my budget for this is below $250 but im not needing an extreme amount of stuff. I need it to go from an Empty site to completely finished and ready to operate.

I'm not sure why people use such strange capitalization as "i need Someone"? At any rate, the punctuation is often incorrect or non-existent and the grammar is often bad as well. Additionally, you typically only get a sentence or two and requirements are rarely included.

In general, most project owners are:

1. Not qualified to assess whether a given contractor can do the job or not.
2. Unable to sum up their project in TV guide style, much less commit to creating a good set of requirements.

This is not uncommon of all clients everywhere, BUT the big difference is when you deal with clients over the phone or face to face, you have a better chance of getting to the root of what needs to be done. The impersonal nature of the site makes it difficult to gather info as well as differentiate yourself from everyone else.

Project owners aren't required to submit a structured request for proposal and their assumptions on cost versus result are usually way off. Furthermore, the typical client usually has no concept of value/benefit marketing, they have no USP for their business or product, and they never heard of a S.W.A.T analysis. This means that you have to produce something that has no measurable goals using only vague requirements.

Sites like guru.com are still the land of dreams and big ideas. You know, that happy place where a good idea gets lots of free programming, graphic design and advertising.

Expectations are often as high as the budgets are low. Nothing about the project seems all that difficult to the client and therefore shouldn't cost too much. Almost everyone on sites like guru.com is shopping based on price alone.

The expectation of minimal cost for maximum result produces a glut of projects on which you will never want to bid; the number of "good" jobs is extremely limited.

To sum up, employers on these sites are quite possibly the worst possible prospects for an independent developer because:

1. It is difficult to differentiate yourself from the competition.
2. Prospects often dream big, but have skewed expectations for features and cost.
3. Most prospects are shopping based on price.
4. "Good" jobs are few and far between.

Is it impossible to win good jobs? No.
If you are a developer, I would say that it is not impossible to overcome these deficits, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the jobs to poor in -- especially if you're a free-lancer. You'll want to develop a strategy that's right for your skills and business and be willing to experiment for a long time with any of these jobs sites.

If you are a prospective employer, I would encourage you to purchase Outsourcing Web Projects: 6 Steps to a Smarter Business from sitepoint.com -- it's an excellent book that will help you be a more attractive prospect, which can get you better bids from better developers.

Do You Have Too Many Products?

Circumstances beyond my control led me to the Oracle website. It's been a number of years since I used an Oracle database and I wanted to see what they have in the way of rapid application development tools.

Now, why is it that big companies like Oracle, Microsoft, HP, and IBM have websites that are completely impossible to navigate? I think I would have an easier time finding my way out of the Australian outback than finding my way to a product on any of these sites.

How is it that these companies -- industry giants -- have abysmally difficult websites? The budget for these sites probably rival's the GDP of a small country, and for what? Usability? Ha! Accessibility? Doubt it. They spend this money and they arrive at a website that is so difficult to navigate, that one wonders how such a monstrosity could have been contrived.

There is so much fluff and market-speak on these sites that it is truly challenging to get an idea of what they are selling. Does Oracle sell a database server? Does Microsoft have some sort of collaboration tool? Do HP and IBM still sell servers? The answers -- if they exist -- are buried deep in a big ball of mud.

Could it be they have too many products? I mean, look at Microsoft and Oracle. Does every product they offer have their name in front of it because their products aren't unique? And although I think Microsoft's site is very much improved from recent versions, check out this list of "Windows" products:

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista
• Windows XP
• Windows Mobile
• Windows Automotive
• Windows Azure
• Windows Embedded

"Windows Automotive"? Really? "Azure"? And the list of servers:

• Windows Server
• Windows Essential Business Server
• Windows Small Business Server
• Windows Home Server

Apparently, Windows servers aren't essential to small businesses or in the home? You get my point: Too many products.

Back to oracle.com and the impossibility of understanding what products they really offer. A database? Sure. But what's all that other stuff. I need to hire a consultant to tell me what all these products are for.

After a while I was able to find the developer's version of the Oracle database as well as their free IDE known as JDeveloper. I got these things set up and poked around a bit, building a simple JSP page and generally fiddling with the software.

As an experienced systems administrator and programmer, I can see there is a lot of power there, but I am totally overwhelmed by the massive amount of products offered by Oracle. Could I use them? Probably, but I don't have time to figure out which ones I need.

Call me impatient, but I want something that obviously fits my needs. As a builder of things, I understand the desire to create more products and I reckon most of these companies are (or should be) creating products to obtain a competitive advantage. But more products as a differentiator? That I doubt.

Is anyone doing it right? I tried to think of a "big" company with a lot of products. The Apple website is pretty easy to use. But I think Google has the right idea; lay it all out in a simple way; icons, title/link, and a (very) brief introduction.

It is easy for me to sweep aside years of product development and branding, making simple something that is inherently complicated -- and it's not like any of these companies would listen to the likes of me. But this made me examine my own products and websites -- do I have too many products? Do you?

The Shoe is On the Other Foot

I am a pretty good guesser and empathizer. I also have a good imagination. This helps me build Web sites and applications that are useful, thoughtful, and helpful to clients. Most of the time, anyway. It also helps me understand the client's perspective and win more jobs.

But after deciding to outsource the Objective-C portion of our iPhone application, I am now "the client". And the experience has been helpful in understanding even more of the client's perspective.

Timing and Silence

My chief complaint -- if it can be called that -- is getting the job done on time (which we have not) and hearing from the developer on progress (which was good at first but lately has been sporadic). Most of us (developers) are well aware that communication can be an issue, but this experience has really driven home to me the necessity of prompt communication.

• Say something, anything. Never let a message go unanswered, eve if it's just to say "message received". We often feel pressured to have news or progress before responding, but this takes time. Instead, let the customer know you're still there.
• Be up-front about delays. Let the customer know as soon as possible if there's going to be a delay.
• Be open about the current schedule for incoming change requests.

Silence leads to frustration -- don't frustrate your clients.

As a result, I have a new goal for communication with my own clients.

Planning Big Without Big Plans

I was cleaning up and archiving my files today and stumbled on to some old documentation. The file was a plain text file, 8KB in size, 454 words that I had written many years earlier.

There were just a few headings, notes and bullet points that included things like statistics for products and orders and ideas for new directions for the business in which I worked.

Even so, this tiny little document (which accompanied me into many meetings) was the beginning of major change in the technology department that was my responsibility and eventually led to profitability and accolades.

The plan was really big, but there was not a lot of research and planning -- just enough to write up a small explanation was all that was needed to start and guide the process.

So many companies both large and small create volumes of documentation and accomplish less than we did. Many projects still commence (and end) with a "big bang" in which every last detail is explored and exhausted before any work has started.

If you are building software for operating life support, then by all means, document until the cows come home. But most other projects and businesses could benefit from creating simple succinct documents that establish achievable goals.

• The detail missing from the document will come naturally.
• Such a document and the direction it provides is quickly and easily changed as more becomes known about your strategic position and operational constraints.
• The compact nature of the plan makes it possible for everyone involved to grasp and own the goals.

It IS possible to plan big without creating complex documentation if you get over "how it's done" and have a talent for organization on the fly. Give it a try, it might just surprise you.