It’s robust and feature-rich, but ideally scalable and easily customizable. It ships with lots of themes, customization options, extensions, and powerful e-commerce functionalities… Basically, the list of reasons why you’d want to use Magento to power your online store with is… a never-ending one. But what about the evaluation list to keep at hand when choosing your future Magento Development partner in Toronto?
What key criteria should it include?
Criteria that all too often business owners looking to hire a Magento developer or a whole team of them often underestimate thinking that a “Magento Partner” badge stands for all that you look for in their future Magento partner:
- experience
- an extensive skill-set
- communication skills
- work ethic and transparency
- determination to deliver more than a product that works, but also one that’s easy to extend and customize later on
- high level of integrity
Speaking of which, here are 7 common mistakes that you risk to make when selecting the Magento development agency for your future web project.
- You Don’t Check Their Social Media and Their Ranking on Relevant Websites
Do your homework properly and don’t underestimate the powerful clues that you can collect by simply scanning your candidates’ social network pages. Or by looking them up on Magento company ranking websites.
Those with a certain authority in their niche, not affiliate websites, needless to add…
What do their developers’ LinkedIn profiles tell you? Do they have any hands-on experience working on Magento projects? Any relevant certifications and courses that they’ve taken?
And how about the client reviews on their Facebook page?
- You Don’t Ask Whether They Provide Post-Deployment Support
So, you’ve selected your Magento development team in Toronto, they’ve delivered you the Magento store that meets all your requirements, what next?
What if a major Magento upgrade gets released in a… month? Or what if you identify some performance issues? Or there’s a critical patch that needs to be run?
Or maybe your internal team has some questions related to the back-end editing interface on your e-commerce website?
Will they still be there to provide you 24/7 support? To provide you all the due performance improvement recommendations and to maintain all your current Magento features in tip-top shape… years to come from now on?
- You Don’t Inquire on their Specific Number of Completed Magento Projects
Experience is critical when choosing a Magento developer. Or an agency…
How old is the Magento company that you’re evaluating? How many Magento e-stores have they developed so far?
What’s the size and complexity of the projects in their portfolio? Do they have a proven experience in custom Magento development or are they merely implementing pre-defined Magento features?
In this respect, here at OPTASY we have a “guilty” weakness for doing Magento custom work. For building new features from scratch so that the online stores that we deliver fit our client’s functionality needs exactly.
- You Put Magento Certifications Above Trusted Referrals
Of course, checking whether the Magento development companies in Toronto that you evaluate, are Magento certified, is, indeed, critical.
But turning that into your ultimate criterion and dismissing a candidate with great referrals while favoring one that holds that due certification, but has no proven experience… can be risky.
- You Overlook to Evaluate Their Activity as Magento Contributors
Make sure you’ll partner with a team who doesn’t stick to its Magento projects only but brings its contribution to the platform’s own growth, as well. All while they remain focused on their personal growth as Magento developers.
How active is the Magento developer that you’re interviewing on StackOverflow or StackExchange? Do your candidates have active GitHub accounts?
Do they attend relevant Magento events, conferences, meetups on a regular basis?
- You Don’t Check If It’s a Certified Magento Development Agency in Toronto
Don’t overlook or underestimate this step in your evaluation process. You do want to check whether the developers who’ll be working on your project are Magento certified.
Also, do keep in mind that there are different levels of certifications. Make sure the interviewed agency doesn’t have just low level certified people in their team.
Furthermore, you might want to ask some specific questions about specifically how many certified Magento developers will be assigned to your project. The fact that they do have some highly experienced developers in their team doesn’t guarantee you that they’ll be working on your own project.
You might want to inquire about this aspect before you… sign anything.
- You Don’t Deep Scan Their Portfolio and Contact Their Former Clients
Don’t just take a “beefy” portfolio for granted! Make sure that all the information included there is real.
How? You might as well email some of the companies listed there and check whether :
- the agency in question has developed their Magento online store from the ground up, as stated in the portfolio; you might just find out that the project was no more than small feature implementation
- they did do Magento development work for that client; in some cases that company might turn out to be just a name added to their list to “lure in” new potential clients
- former clients are satisfied with both this agency’s level of Magento knowledge, professionalism and communication skills
Now, with this list of 7 mistakes to avoid when interviewing a Magento developer I can only wish you the best of luck. May you partner with dedicated Magento professionals with a strong worth ethic only!