From AudioBrain to AudioBrain.Language or intermediate freelancing as it is

Developing our first AudioBrain project, which I talked about in the last article on Habrahabr, I mentioned that due to the specifics of the application and the lack of our own production resources, we had to ask for help from freelancers, which was our first experience , as well as the opportunity to look at the whole process " from the other side ". After the release, we switched to creating a new application, AudioBrain.Language, which should have been an adequate answer for those who consider themselves unable to learn a foreign language (in short, for people like me) . The new application presented us with new and more complex tasks, for the solution of which we needed concrete help from specialists. Therefore, we once again decided to turn to the services of freelancers, and we decided to share the experience of the interaction obtained, licking wounds and bruises, with the entire Honorable public Habrahabr.

Probably it is worth adding that both my partner and me, in my own time, repeatedly earned my freelance work with varying success in various fields, so they knew from my own experience what difficulties they had when working with customers and what could be expected even from the most adequate client. Well, of course, we remembered the non-existent “ ideal client ” ... Based on our experience, and also imagining what we want, we prepared certain rules and requirements for working with freelancers, which were gradually refined, taking into account the emergence of new situations and new experience. These are the rules and advice we would like to share with you in this article. Of course, all projects have their own specifics, but the general rules work with freelancers, regardless of the area in which they provide their services.
So, in this article we will tell:

1. How to search and choose the right artist for your assignment.
2. How to negotiate with a potential performer.
3. How to assign a fair price for the work and be able to argue it.

1. Statement of the problem

There is one good expression: “in order to ask the right question, you must know at least half the answer in advance ”. Why am I writing this? Before you set the task, it is important to clearly understand what you want to get in a toga and it is very desirable to understand what is at stake. I am well aware that, taking into account our reality, it is far from uncommon that the project is developed by a team consisting of one person who is “a reaper and a dreamer ”. Therefore, this advice is advisory rather than mandatory.
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Taking into account our own experience in the fields of freelancing, we expected that everything would be more or less simple with the formulation of tasks. But, as it turned out, there are problems from scratch, connected, oddly enough, with the age and mentality of the performer, as well as the “ theme ” of the task. In our case, the tasks were divided into three uneven groups:

Group I: Voice of media files

There are guys who work not just well, quickly and cheaply, but very well, quickly and cheaply. And there are guys who bend prices in a straight place, often get sick, and generally careless about the tasks. Between these diametrical poles there are still third type performers who relate to performing work with understanding, if we are able to find the right approach to them. During the development of our application, we managed to cross with all groups of performers.

For example, a Russian freelancer sometimes fulfilled an order right on the day of the order! And the Italian lost his voice and was able to complete the task only after a week, of which he had warned and apologized. To which we replied that this happens, and wished to recover as soon as possible.

But when we had to announce the task, which was not included in his budget and plans, even though he later agreed, he agreed to do it, which was very pleasant.

Group II: Translation (translators)

With the translation came out quite an interesting story. In principle, there are online translation services, for example, Gengo. So, if the volume of the text is less than 200 words, then it is possible to do through such a service, sometimes it turns out much faster and cheaper. But if the volumes are more than one DIN A4 page, then using the services of freelancers is much cheaper. To be honest, sometimes it is so cheaper that sometimes it even becomes a pity to pay so little for such labor!

In our case, working with freelancers had a definite goal. After the translation of texts, translation verification should follow (prooffreeding). This is especially true of languages ​​that you do not know at all. Hiring a person to record the translation, we received free proofing, and in real time we could discuss the errors in the translations and ask for modifications. Such a control system allowed us, on the one hand, to achieve a decent quality of translation and voice acting, and on the other hand, to save some money. At the same time, it is important to mention once again that both the translation and the dubbing were done by different people!

Group III: Developing an iOS application (about developers)

Freelancer version of AudioBrain under iOS, we took from India. This imposed a certain cultural filter on the entire workflow, with which we had to adapt along the way. Unlike translators, developers are very important to keep under control and to be in contact with them all the time. Repeatedly there were pair programming sessions when an Indian got stuck at some points. It was also often necessary to sit with him for hours on Skype, trying to understand the cause of the errors while looking at the listing with the code.

Developers are a kind of paladins freelancing. It is very important for them to prepare a technical task taking into account the fact that information will still be missed and much will have to be repeatedly explained on fingers in correspondence or via Skype. Therefore, you need to be patient, and not try to write a detailed technical task with a desire to take into account all the pitfalls. However, there is a definite plus in this - the description of algorithms and discussion of some features in words in a chat can be done much faster. But ... when working with a developer, never demand or even hope for full fulfillment of the deadlines and timely delivery of the Mylston towns with tasks. Anyway, something will be done clumsily or will not be done or will be cut down or will require additional payment. In addition, it is worth remembering that the subsequent work with the developer on another project based on the first order will be initially more expensive, even if the amount of work is several times smaller.

But, knowing all this in advance, you can save nerve cells and hair, which in another situation, you just want to pull out because of a misunderstanding of the interlocutor. Therefore, it will be optimal to tune in to work philosophically and, if possible, be ready to sit and code with the performer online. For example, my partner sent the Indian a function code implemented in the Android version in Java, so that he could quickly understand how it could be implemented under iOS in Objective C, which made them both happier: the programmer from what he understood what was needed, and my partner from the fact that the work went much faster. It even got to the point that my partner sat and googled software solutions for the implementation of the tasks set by us so that it turned out to be the most optimal.

Be very attentive with developers, as dependence on them is many times higher than from musicians, designers or translators. This is especially true when you need to upgrade or upgrade, so try not to quarrel. Especially at the finish line, when you will be the most emotionally devastated.

2. Determining the budget

Let's be honest. Being on the other side of the barricade, we want to get the highest quality service for the minimum possible means. On the other hand, knowing from my own experience how money is not just made, and how often they try to impale , I believe that the most optimal working relationships are formed when both the customers and the performers are satisfied. Before you continue to write banalities, it is worth a little deeper into this thought. We all have very different requests, despite the fact that the level does not always match the price. For example, when we were looking for a “ voice ” for an English voice acting, we liked a candidate who turned out to be a BBC broadcaster who asked for such an indiscreet price for her services that it was somehow inconvenient to bring her here. But, thanks to this nice young lady, we decided to abandon the female voice and stumbled upon a beautiful male English voice for the price three times lower. In addition, we were so pleased with the quality and speed of the performer we found, that we later several times made orders for voice acting from him.

Therefore, carefully study the price requests of freelancers and their adequacy. And then compare with your own ideas about quality and cost. Somewhere in the middle and there is an adequate price for the work.

This is reminiscent of a discussion with one acquaintance about his desire to enter the Chinese market and not wanting to give 50% to intermediary firms ... As you understand, he didn’t go to the Chinese market because it is “expensive”. True, he forgot to calculate that 50% of the new market is much more than 100% of zero. Simple math.

But sometimes it is worth looking for compromises and being flexible. We had a case when we couldn’t agree with the freelancer for a long time about the price to which the potential performer wanted an additional 10%, and we tried to reason with it with all our strength. Forgive me upwork (at that time taking 10% from the contract, now they changed the rates and, unfortunately, not for the better), we just agreed with the freelancer directly and paid him through PayPal, so he didn’t have to give 10% for intermediary services upwork'u. To make it clearer, I’ll show you in numbers: let's say the freelancer wanted to get $ 500, so that by paying 10% to upwork, he would have had $ 450 left. Through PayPal, we paid him the same $ 450 directly and everyone was happy (probably everything except upwork).

3. Search and selection of a candidate

While working with freelancers, we followed a few key rules:

1. To be fair customers, with a clear understanding and definition of the range of tasks and aspects to be performed and knowing the cost of such work.
2. Do not be greedy and leave room for maneuver.
3. Do not get hung up on one artist, so do not be afraid to experiment and part.
4. Search for the opportunity to save your time.

When choosing an artist for his work, it was necessary to find an acceptable balance between the price of the service and the quality of the work of the freelancer. In our case, before choosing the price and quality, we first asked a few questions about the task itself. For example, wanting to order translations of texts and sound recording, we asked: “ Are you really a speaker? "," Are you sure you will do the work on time? "Or" do you understand what transliteration is and that it can be of different types? ". Rather simple questions that let you know the candidate's motivation and adequacy in communication. Very often we asked to send a demo, which turned out to be a good indicator of the adequacy of the performer and played the role of a buffer. Responsible candidates voiced and recorded one or two lines from the assignment, and less responsible candidates sent simply references to previously completed work. In addition, there were candidates who did not send anything at all, despite the unequivocal request for this in the announcement. We almost always gave the advantage to more responsible and “ fast ” candidates, as this showed us the interest of the person in the work and gave a certain sense of confidence in the candidate.

If the choice was not very large, or we liked the candidate's demo, we carefully read the reviews of former clients and decided to “ internal flair ”. The latter should be a little more detailed. Sometimes it happened that we had a choice of two or three candidates with approximately the same reviews and prices, and with all their positive qualities, the internal sense was categorically against all. In such cases, we simply refused to everyone and looked for new candidates or took on more expensive performers. This decision, based on intuition, has never failed us. Once, at the very beginning, we had a situation where there was simply no choice, and we ordered work from a person despite an internal disagreement ... It ended up having to order work from another artist, and we also got to GooglePlay unit with a comment that we have German read by a robot from Google Translate. Therefore, we strongly advise you to rely on your inner sense, no matter how “ not scientifically .” From this follows the first tip: Do not be afraid to trust your own instincts!

Have you ever had such a thing that when you first met a person, before you even had time to exchange the first words, you were already experiencing antipathy towards him? This includes our internal tracking system, which, after checking “ friend or foe ”, tries to warn us. While choosing a freelancer, you may stumble upon an excellent candidate, but your inner voice may say “ not worth it .” So, do not dismiss this inner voice. We have had situations where, because of our inner voice, we did not take a good candidate. If there was such uncertainty, and when viewing the profile prices and reviews were about the same, we did not take any. Sometimes it happened with people whose level was higher ... It was important for us to find a good performer, so sometimes it was easier to get a candidate who was more expensive, but more expensive does not necessarily mean better. Exceptions are situations where there is simply no choice. For example, when we were looking for a “performer” for a rare Latin language, we only found two candidates out of ten thousand people! As you understand, the choice here was more than limited. Sober calculation comes to the first place: who is better, an American student or a Hindu with many years of experience? We chose a Hindu and, in this case, did not regret it.

Being engaged in the search for performers, we all, of course, first of all pay attention to the budget, examples of works and comments to them, as well as the time of a person on the site. These three elements give us a certain inner calm when choosing a candidate. And what about the candidates who have no or minimal comments, and their time spent on the site is calculated in weeks? Is it worth the risk?

In our case, during the search for the Italian narrator, we hit the “newcomer” on the site, which turned out to be a fairly well-known Italian radio host with more than 20 years of experience. Wanting to try himself in a new business, he was ready to do all the work for us with sufficiently small money, while warning in advance that in the future the cost of his services would increase significantly, and now he is working with a minimum price to collect reviews. In this situation, and taking into account his experience and quality of work, this was fair, moreover, we were warned beforehand, unlike the same German, who simply worked with his own voice between the cases.

Here, however, was the only, but significant minus. Given the fact that the person knew his own worth and was constantly at work, we had to adjust to his schedule.

A separate subparagraph of the candidate's choice is its adequacy with respect to their own forces to perform a particular job. For example, I involve a programmer to perform a rather non-standard work, which can be called a task with an asterisk, the person, after calculating the cost of work, asked for some time to conduct tests and see if he could do the work. After some time, which he took to pondering, the person honestly announced that at the moment he was not able to realize the necessary function. It's great when a person appreciates both his and other people's time! The most terrible thing is when a person takes on obligations, and then breaking deadlines feeds him with breakfast, and it’s good if it ends up with done work of satisfactory quality, and not just the loss and ignoring of messages or just a message in the spirit of “I can't”.

4. Communication and work control

Before accepting the work done, it is worth saying that any result needs to be monitored, otherwise there is a possibility that you will get a job that is not quite ready. Before we closed each offer and paid for the work, we carefully studied the result and, if possible, checked through other freelancers, as in the example of “ prooffreeding ”.

Interacting and communicating with a freelancer, you should not immediately rush into battle, but you should ask how he is doing and offer to exchange Skype contacts. In addition, after the first contact and acceptance of the offer, many ask for Skype themselves, which is also a good sign. Sometimes it makes sense to take a chance and ask a freelancer about a task that is not on his list of skills. As an example, a person who is engaged in voicing may well provide sensible tips and comments regarding the quality of the translation or help you find the content you need in his native language. So, for example, we were going to find Korean content for AudioBrain.

And the last - if a person is a beginner, and you are his potentially first client, you should not be afraid to give him a chance. Very often, the price and the level of work can surprise you very much. We all started somewhere ...

5. Promotions and violations

If there is a possibility and there is no fear of the “toad”, which can “strangle”, you can sometimes thank the performer for the quality and quickly done work with a small cash reward. This is a kind of tip for a freelancer. It sounds weird, but essentially the same thing.

While working with one of the translators, we got a rare kind of freelancers, who not only did the work quickly and efficiently, but also added something on their own initiative from above. For example, a person who sounded Arabic corrected several phrases, prepared transcriptions for them in English, and at the end sent more than one file with voice acting, which I then had to cut, and an archive with five hundred cut phrases and saved each your audio file How then could this work not be noted? Therefore, the second tip: Do not be afraid to promote good work! .

Of course, money is not superfluous, but if a person has done his job well, and if you have a spiritual impulse to encourage a person to work, do not choke him. In the end, once you were in his place, and the "little thing" is always pleasant.

In addition to financial incentives, it is considered good form to leave a positive review on platforms if you are satisfied with the person’s work. This will be a plus for you and him. Working with different performers, over time it will be much easier for you to compare them with each other and have an understanding of who should be encouraged to work and who should not. Do not be surprised if with one performer you have to spend too much time on a question, and the other has not only managed to start half the price at this time, but is also nearing the end of the work.

Reasonable generosity is an injection against " downtime " and " force majeure ." Despite the fact that the performer does not overlap with the customer live, no one cancels human relations.

6. Pitfalls and force majeure

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