The open-source e-commerce platform Magento made headlines in 2018 when Adobe bought it for $1.68 billion. Although Adobe later renamed it “Adobe Commerce,” most users continue to refer to the platform as Magento and will often advertise for a developer by asking about Magento. As a business using Magento to power your e-commerce, you likely have had the experience of searching for a Magento developer. However, there are ways to make this process faster and more efficient by developing a list of key criteria that will help you to find the right developer for your needs.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the criteria you should use to evaluate candidates, whether they come to you through an employment ad or from a Magento agency that matches developers with businesses that need development services.
Magento-Specific Experience
The first criterion to consider might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s the most important one on our list. The developer that you hire to work on your Magento e-commerce site should have Magento experience.
We’ve seen many developers who will tell a potential employer that they have general coding experience and can learn any platform, but you don’t have time as a business to wait for your new developer to get up to speed. You need to make sure that the person you hire to run your Magento operations actually knows the platform and can work with it at an expert level from day one.
A developer with specialized Magento expertise will understand its core features, architecture, and best practices. Many Magento experts have Magento certifications, which can be a useful way of winnowing down a field of candidates to those most likely to have the expertise you need.
A Portfolio of Past Work
Don’t take an applicant’s word for it when they say that they have Magento expertise. A strong job candidate will have a portfolio of past work in Magento that they can share with you to demonstrate their past successes.
When you examine their portfolio, you will want to look for candidates whose experience is tied to managing e-commerce sites that are similar in size and complexity to your own.
Your goal should be to find someone who succeeded with a comparable website so they can bring their record of success to your project. It’s also a good idea to check to see if the candidate’s past work is in a similar industry to your own. If it is, then they will likely have more of an idea of how best to approach your site.
Business Knowledge
Magento-specific expertise is only the foundation for a successful Magento developer. When you are looking for a developer, you should ask about their knowledge of the business side of e-commerce.
For instance, you should ask developers what they know about conversion optimization, user experience, SEO, and security. They should be able to explain in detail the principles behind the business side of e-commerce so you can feel confident that they will understand how to develop a Magento-powered site to optimize your business’s commerce potential. They should be able to articulate the business case behind strategic decisions made about the development of the site and its features.
Support Services
If you are hiring a developer for a fixed period of time and not as a permanent employee, you’ll also want to be sure that you are aware of the support services they offer and what assistance, if any, they will provide after the work is complete.
You’ll want to be sure that you and the developer have an agreement regarding handling bugs, security patches, and ongoing maintenance after your site is live. Be sure to review their service-level agreement to get an idea of the expected response time so you can anticipate whether you will be able to get problems solved quickly enough for your customers’ needs.
Similarly, you’ll want to get an idea of how quickly they respond to email to make sure that as they work on the project you can stay in regular communication with the developer. The last thing you need is someone who regularly goes radio-silent.
Detailed Quote and Pricing Estimate
Finally, when you choose a developer, it’s important to look for one who can offer you a detailed quote and a clear pricing estimate. Ask about their hourly rate and/or project-based fees.
If the developer offers only vague pricing guides or places too many contingencies on the estimate, you should be concerned that they plan to stack add-on charges and additional hours of work atop those already quoted.
Remember, the cheapest option is not always the right choice. Developers who quote prices that seem too far below market rates often have too little experience or are too willing to compromise on quality to deliver the high-quality Magento development you need.