Post: #1

...but you're not an Android or IOS programmer, what's the best way of going about bringing your ideal to fruition? I figure I'd have to write up a non-disclosure form for any prospective programmers I hire so they don't steal the ideal. And probably not hire any programmers in another country like India where they may not respect our intellectual property rights. Though hiring an American programmer may be prohibitively expensive for me. Has anyone done this before?

Post: #2

I'm in the process of outsourcing the development now. I've met with a local developer (Australia) he told me it's too expensive for a young guy like me to be using local clients who usually take on big corporate clients. he said outsource to India etc it will be half the cost. However you will have to plan ur app down to the details, which is what Im doing now. I imagine it will be tedious, a lot of emails with bad English etc but you'll have the app eventually. The risk with them copying is something u have to take, remember, a lot of them are coders not ideas people. I write a post on this a week back, I plan to follow it up. http://ruxman.com/2013/10/22/app-idea/

Post: #3

(11-03-2013 10:29 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  ...but you're not an Android or IOS programmer, what's the best way of going about bringing your ideal to fruition?

You guys might want to look at Blue Chilli, they have a whole process for this :

http://www.bluechilli.com/about-bluechilli/

http://www.bluechilli.com/startup-process/

Post: #4

(11-03-2013 10:29 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  ...but you're not an Android or IOS programmer, what's the best way of going about bringing your ideal to fruition? I figure I'd have to write up a non-disclosure form for any prospective programmers I hire so they don't steal the ideal. And probably not hire any programmers in another country like India where they may not respect our intellectual property rights. Though hiring an American programmer may be prohibitively expensive for me. Has anyone done this before?

Hey man, I am a developer and here is my view on Non-Disclosure, Non-Compete.

IT IS A TOTAL GARBAGE DOCUMENT INTERNATIONALLY. It does not mean shit and impossible to enforce. Maybe within your own country you can file complaint against developer, it's difficult to fight for punitive damages for a app concept.

I am not saying developers steal ideas, but they also work with multiple clients and throw around concepts between each other. Even if they sign non-disclosure document with you, doesn't mean they cannot write the app themselves, sell it to another client, who will publish it on behalf of a completely unrelated company.

I would highly recommend developing partnership relationship with your developer. Find a friend who would be interested in a stock option or revenue share of the future app. You can pay him partially with money for his work and partially with company share.

Ideally, if your shit is really good, you can find angel investor. Even a small time investor is better than footing entire dev on your own. Play with other people's money. Never dev on credit or with your last dollar.

Blue Chilli is fascinating place. However, if your app has unique algorithm - PATENT THAT SHIT! You cannot patent concepts or ideas, but you can patent a formula. Say you want to create a dating app that uses certain characteristics to match couples. It's not patentable. However, if you have a working algorithm that does this, then you can patent that.

As a developer I highly advise AGAINST going to freelancer or oDesk and hiring first lucky Indian to do work for you.

Also keep in mind, if your idea is worth stealing it probably has potential and you're onto something. You don't always have to be first and only in the market. In fact, First and only does not grant success. Especially in the app world. Copycats push more users towards your concepts. I remember when Foursquare first started. Nobody cared about checking in. But more apps started offering same feature and Foursquare got more popular.

Also, I highly recommend reading a book Lean Startup. Get your concept into material state asap and ship. Don't wait for perfect app. Ship what you have, even if it's garbage at first.

Post: #5

OP if you decide to outsource these might be some relevant points to remember:

Quote:[Note: this appeared on TechCrunch this past weekend. ]

This is going be a bullet FAQ on starting a business. No joke. If you’re a lawyer, feel free to disagree with me, so you can charge someone your BS fees to give the same advice. If you can think of anything to add, please do so. I might be missing things. If you want to argue with me, feel free. I might be wrong on any of the items below.

5) Should you patent your idea?
Get customers first. Patent later. Don’t talk to lawyers until the last possible moment.

6) Should you require venture capitalists to sign NDAs?
No. Nobody is going to steal your idea.

8) Should you have a technical co-founder if you are not technical?
No. If you don’t already have a technical co-founder you can always outsource technology and not give up equity.

11) Should you build a product?
Maybe. But first see if, manually, your product works. Then think about providing it as a service. Then productize the commonly used services. Too many people do this in reverse and then fail.

25) What is the sign of an amateur?
– Asking for an NDA.......(cut)

86) I have an idea for an app but don’t know how to execute. What should I do?
Draw every screen and function. Then outsource someone to make the drawings look like they come from a real app. Then outsource the development of the app. Get a specific schedule. Micromanage the schedule.

Source and 90+ more dot points from the same article
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2013/08/the...-business/




OP if your idea is pretty simple, then outsource it as much as possible, launch it as a minimum viable product and market the hell out of it then think about refining it with your new revenues or investor money. If it is a more complex app idea (perhaps an enterprise app) then perhaps you'd be better of making a clear business plan up front and approaching dozens of potential clients with the idea. Take wire frame mockups and powerpoint presentations to communicate the idea. If it attracts interest and is likely to have paying customers on launch then you have a basis for an investor funding the development. If not then make a better idea.

Post: #6

(11-04-2013 06:35 AM)TrueStory Wrote:  Hey man, I am a developer and here is my view on Non-Disclosure, Non-Compete.

IT IS A TOTAL GARBAGE DOCUMENT INTERNATIONALLY. It does not mean shit and impossible to enforce. Maybe within your own country you can file complaint against developer, it's difficult to fight for punitive damages for a app concept.

I am not saying developers steal ideas, but they also work with multiple clients and throw around concepts between each other. Even if they sign non-disclosure document with you, doesn't mean they cannot write the app themselves, sell it to another client, who will publish it on behalf of a completely unrelated company.

I would highly recommend developing partnership relationship with your developer. Find a friend who would be interested in a stock option or revenue share of the future app. You can pay him partially with money for his work and partially with company share.

Ideally, if your shit is really good, you can find angel investor. Even a small time investor is better than footing entire dev on your own. Play with other people's money. Never dev on credit or with your last dollar.

Blue Chilli is fascinating place. However, if your app has unique algorithm - PATENT THAT SHIT! You cannot patent concepts or ideas, but you can patent a formula. Say you want to create a dating app that uses certain characteristics to match couples. It's not patentable. However, if you have a working algorithm that does this, then you can patent that.

As a developer I highly advise AGAINST going to freelancer or oDesk and hiring first lucky Indian to do work for you.

Also keep in mind, if your idea is worth stealing it probably has potential and you're onto something. You don't always have to be first and only in the market. In fact, First and only does not grant success. Especially in the app world. Copycats push more users towards your concepts. I remember when Foursquare first started. Nobody cared about checking in. But more apps started offering same feature and Foursquare got more popular.

Also, I highly recommend reading a book Lean Startup. Get your concept into material state asap and ship. Don't wait for perfect app. Ship what you have, even if it's garbage at first.

Truestory, sounds like you have some good experience in the app building industry.

Have you personally seen cases where a non technical founder has taken an idea, done a business plan & some marketing, and managed to raise angel/seed funding for development? I know it can be and is regularly done, so if you've seen it yourself what was it that the non technical founder offered that enabled him to get angel funding?

Post: #7

Right now with my app Im working on all the miniscule details like settings etc. just a draft, once all details are done I'll wireframe it again. Then outsource design followed by development, Im curious if local developers on gumtree could also be viable, especially if u meet them first. I've read even publishing is fairly tedious. Also, if you really really want to know the viability there's always focus groups, but id rather save the money for the actual app. If it fails then I'll grow wise for the next big wave.

Post: #8

There are tons of blogs and resources on non-technical people making smartphone/tablet programs.

It starts with "wireframing" or "storyboarding"

You take your raw idea, a pencil and paper and draw out everything
- screen 1
- click this button
- screen 2
- click this button
- screen 3
- click this button -
- back to screen 1

There are plenty of people out there, to help you do just that.

http://empireflippers.com/empire-mobile-applications/

Here's one from a super popular podcast.

After you've got your idea down on paper

You need 3 people

1) The Developer - this is the person that makes the thing work. You can always find an American (who you can sue, I guess), who will subcontract the heavy lifting to the Eastern Europeans or Indians. I have a friend that builds corporate sites that way. He's the face, but Sahib and the boys are crunching out the code. (And the way he talks about them, it'd be cheaper to hire American developers who don't need all the hand holding and being told exactly what to do)

2) The Designer - Coders aren't necessarily good with Adobe Illustrator. You need someone to make the program look cool. From the super small icon sitting on the phone, to each individual page, to the buttons, everything.

3) The User Interface person - This is the person that takes your idea and makes going from A to B easy and fun. Probably the most overlooked part of making programs.

If you're just trying to make money, most of the popular apps out there, have been copied, and you can buy the code, and then reskin the app. So same underlying mechanics, a tweak here or there, but with a new face.

Instead of Angry Birds, it's Furious Warthogs.

If you're talking about some revolutionary silicon valley shit, there are better resources out there than RVF.

WIA

Post: #9

(11-04-2013 11:12 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  There are tons of blogs and resources on non-technical people making smartphone/tablet programs.

It starts with "wireframing" or "storyboarding"

You take your raw idea, a pencil and paper and draw out everything
- screen 1
- click this button
- screen 2
- click this button
- screen 3
- click this button -
- back to screen 1

There are plenty of people out there, to help you do just that.

http://empireflippers.com/empire-mobile-applications/

Here's one from a super popular podcast.

After you've got your idea down on paper

You need 3 people

1) The Developer - this is the person that makes the thing work. You can always find an American (who you can sue, I guess), who will subcontract the heavy lifting to the Eastern Europeans or Indians. I have a friend that builds corporate sites that way. He's the face, but Sahib and the boys are crunching out the code. (And the way he talks about them, it'd be cheaper to hire American developers who don't need all the hand holding and being told exactly what to do)

2) The Designer - Coders aren't necessarily good with Adobe Illustrator. You need someone to make the program look cool. From the super small icon sitting on the phone, to each individual page, to the buttons, everything.

3) The User Interface person - This is the person that takes your idea and makes going from A to B easy and fun. Probably the most overlooked part of making programs.

If you're just trying to make money, most of the popular apps out there, have been copied, and you can buy the code, and then reskin the app. So same underlying mechanics, a tweak here or there, but with a new face.

Instead of Angry Birds, it's Furious Warthogs.

If you're talking about some revolutionary silicon valley shit, there are better resources out there than RVF.

WIA

My idea is for something I've searched high and lo and felt would be very useful but can't find any app that did this particular task. Not saying it will be the next whatsapp or anything, but I could see it earning some passive income. Of your 3 bullet points, I can already do 2 and 3 as I come from a front end design background. It's just app programming that I know nothing about. Thanks for your response!

Post: #10

Don't worry too much about someone stealing your idea. Ultimately, it's down to marketing. There are more than 500,000 apps in the App Store.. it's who markets that gets the downloads.

I talked to one guy who had a game in the top 50 in the app store. One day, it dropped to #26 (which means it appeared on page 2 of the app store "top" listing).. their downloads plummeted.

If you have a somewhat decent product, then it will all come down to marketing. Work on that.

Post: #11

(11-04-2013 11:12 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  There are tons of blogs and resources on non-technical people making smartphone/tablet programs.

It starts with "wireframing" or "storyboarding"

You take your raw idea, a pencil and paper and draw out everything
- screen 1
- click this button
- screen 2
- click this button
- screen 3
- click this button -
- back to screen 1

There are plenty of people out there, to help you do just that.

http://empireflippers.com/empire-mobile-applications/

Here's one from a super popular podcast.

After you've got your idea down on paper

You need 3 people

1) The Developer - this is the person that makes the thing work. You can always find an American (who you can sue, I guess), who will subcontract the heavy lifting to the Eastern Europeans or Indians. I have a friend that builds corporate sites that way. He's the face, but Sahib and the boys are crunching out the code. (And the way he talks about them, it'd be cheaper to hire American developers who don't need all the hand holding and being told exactly what to do)

2) The Designer - Coders aren't necessarily good with Adobe Illustrator. You need someone to make the program look cool. From the super small icon sitting on the phone, to each individual page, to the buttons, everything.

3) The User Interface person - This is the person that takes your idea and makes going from A to B easy and fun. Probably the most overlooked part of making programs.

If you're just trying to make money, most of the popular apps out there, have been copied, and you can buy the code, and then reskin the app. So same underlying mechanics, a tweak here or there, but with a new face.

Instead of Angry Birds, it's Furious Warthogs.

If you're talking about some revolutionary silicon valley shit, there are better resources out there than RVF.

WIA

Where are the best places to buy, or better yet download, skins of popular apps?

Post: #12

(11-03-2013 10:29 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  ...but you're not an Android or IOS programmer, what's the best way of going about bringing your ideal to fruition? I figure I'd have to write up a non-disclosure form for any prospective programmers I hire so they don't steal the ideal. And probably not hire any programmers in another country like India where they may not respect our intellectual property rights. Though hiring an American programmer may be prohibitively expensive for me. Has anyone done this before?

You can try shitty marketplace like elance but you won't get quality work. I know some people later will come and say that their experience is the otherwise lol. But I am an experienced developer, and my rate is more than $1000 per day. There's no way that average Joe's can afford to pay me and certainly not race-to-the-bottom market like elance and all.

Post: #13

(11-05-2013 10:27 AM)roid Wrote:  

(11-03-2013 10:29 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  ...but you're not an Android or IOS programmer, what's the best way of going about bringing your ideal to fruition? I figure I'd have to write up a non-disclosure form for any prospective programmers I hire so they don't steal the ideal. And probably not hire any programmers in another country like India where they may not respect our intellectual property rights. Though hiring an American programmer may be prohibitively expensive for me. Has anyone done this before?

You can try shitty marketplace like elance but you won't get quality work. I know some people later will come and say that their experience is the otherwise lol. But I am an experienced developer, and my rate is more than $1000 per day. There's no way that average Joe's can afford to pay me and certainly not race-to-the-bottom market like elance and all.

Since you're an experienced developer how about some advice on how to find affordable programmers? Surely not everyone charges more than $1,000 per day.

Post: #14

I can only speak to my own experience but we currently have 9 apps live in the IOS store each of which was developed from people we found on odesk in India. I've been happy with the experience each time but you need to vet them very carefully.

I also know of other people who have done the same who have app businesses that pull in 6 figures per month so I dont believe you should be writing off odesk.

Obviously if you are building AAA games this is different but I assume thats not what you are after, speakeasy.

Also Apple has a pretty strict policy about copy cat apps so its actually very easy if someone was to steal your code to contact them and have the offenders app pulled down so I wouldn't be too concerned about this.

For those asking for source code you can find good code here -
http://www.bluecloudsolutions.com/source-codes/

You won't find top 20 games as they are simply not available to purchase but alot of times these source codes available can provide a similar basic engine to popular games which you can build upon to save costs rather than creating everything from scratch.

Post: #15

(11-05-2013 09:56 AM)Frost Wrote:  Where are the best places to buy, or better yet download, skins of popular apps?

I'll make this a bookmark. I'll have to check my podcasts, but one dude interviewed some chick who bought a lot of her code on 3 popular forums.

It's probably the foolish adventure show, but it might be something else.

I'll be back with the links

WIA

Post: #16

(11-05-2013 12:53 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 09:56 AM)Frost Wrote:  Where are the best places to buy, or better yet download, skins of popular apps?

I'll make this a bookmark. I'll have to check my podcasts, but one dude interviewed some chick who bought a lot of her code on 3 popular forums.

It's probably the foolish adventure show, but it might be something else.

I'll be back with the links

WIA

Likely one of the following -

http://www.chupamobile.com/
http://www.apptopia.com/
http://www.bluecloudsolutions.com/source-codes/

Post: #17

I can't speak to app design but at least with SEO, PPC, web design, most American companies don't even do the work themselves, they outsource the work to Indian and charge you 3x what they paid.

I just got a website built that here would have cost $15,000. Cost me $3300 and I had a team of 6 working for 40 days on the rollout. Also, my SEO which a company charges $1500 a month here for, I pay $450 to an Indian company.

The company I use is used by some major car comanies, pharmaceutical companies, etc. The only headache is the communication barrier and if I want to have a confrence call with my team it's gotta be at 1AM chicago time which is when they are getting into the office.

Post: #18

(11-04-2013 08:50 PM)ASOT Wrote:  Truestory, sounds like you have some good experience in the app building industry.

Have you personally seen cases where a non technical founder has taken an idea, done a business plan & some marketing, and managed to raise angel/seed funding for development? I know it can be and is regularly done, so if you've seen it yourself what was it that the non technical founder offered that enabled him to get angel funding?

I have a lot of experience with web development and marketing, with a few cases where website needed an app. It's hard to say other way around, where app was there first. Because, somehow you need to market the concept. I would imagine you still have to market the app through the internet. Unless it's something phenomenal like Angry Birds or Candy Crush (which were marketed through social media)

Yes, I've seen cases where non-technical guy got funded for projects, and it's typically, because the non-tech guy has decent connection with people that have access to angels. In cases I've seen, the angel seeded the businesses, while later applied for funding from VC. I worked on atnight.com (a nightlife site) which got seed from a miami club owner only later to apply for VC funds.

(11-05-2013 08:59 AM)paninaro Wrote:  Don't worry too much about someone stealing your idea. Ultimately, it's down to marketing. There are more than 500,000 apps in the App Store.. it's who markets that gets the downloads.

I talked to one guy who had a game in the top 50 in the app store. One day, it dropped to #26 (which means it appeared on page 2 of the app store "top" listing).. their downloads plummeted.

If you have a somewhat decent product, then it will all come down to marketing. Work on that.

What he said. Exactly what he said. There is a new business booming: "App SEO Consulting" > marketing your app in the app store.

Post: #19

For wireframing, use: https://popapp.in/ that will help you get a better idea of how your final product will be, and it will be very powerful to give to your programmer.

You basically draw sketches on paper, take pictures of it and then you can link them using buttons giving you a good idea as to how navigating trough your app will be.

Post: #20

(11-05-2013 03:16 PM)outhustleu Wrote:  I can't speak to app design but at least with SEO, PPC, web design, most American companies don't even do the work themselves, they outsource the work to Indian and charge you 3x what they paid.

Depends on the company.

The best U.S.-based web design / strategy firms have tech teams that are 100% domestic, or close. If you're working on a project of any serious complexity, you need all-day contact with tech guys, and nobody wants to work on this shit overnight with dudes from India, if they can avoid it.

Which raises another point that someone else alluded to upthread— managing creation of a complex app or website takes a lot of oversight. Especially if your devs aren't native speakers.

You'll need an incredibly detailed spec, or many rounds of revision, or (mostly likely) both.

I'd spare myself the frustration and do two things:

1) hire a developer with good-to-excellent English (or another language you know), and

2) hire someone with technical knowledge and lots of experience to vet potential devs before you ever hire them.

#2 in particular will save you a ton of time & wasted effort. It's what I do at my dev shop (I know next to nothing about coding).

Funny, I just started a thread about developing sites / apps as a non-technical person.

I do it as a full-time job, but I'm sure most of the concepts transfer to a side project.

Post: #21

(11-05-2013 11:32 AM)gsinplaya Wrote:  I also know of other people who have done the same who have app businesses that pull in 6 figures per month so I dont believe you should be writing off odesk.

I call bullshit on this.

(11-05-2013 03:16 PM)outhustleu Wrote:  I can't speak to app design but at least with SEO, PPC, web design, most American companies don't even do the work themselves, they outsource the work to Indian and charge you 3x what they paid.

I just got a website built that here would have cost $15,000. Cost me $3300 and I had a team of 6 working for 40 days on the rollout. Also, my SEO which a company charges $1500 a month here for, I pay $450 to an Indian company.

The company I use is used by some major car comanies, pharmaceutical companies, etc. The only headache is the communication barrier and if I want to have a confrence call with my team it's gotta be at 1AM chicago time which is when they are getting into the office.

That just means some shitty SEO companies in the US outsource their link building to the guys in India. Again, these SEO companies will go bust anyway if not for their marketing prowess. These types of semi-automatic link building using blackhat tools will eventually lower your site ranks. Legit SEO companies charge a lot of more money and they will stand the test of time.

Post: #22

(11-05-2013 01:00 PM)gsinplaya Wrote:  Likely one of the following -

http://www.chupamobile.com/
http://www.apptopia.com/
http://www.bluecloudsolutions.com/source-codes/

My god.

http://www.apptopia.com/listings/5288-un...ty-history

Downloads?
Last 6 months
738

Revenue?
Last 6 months
$176

That is a big money project. I can be rich just by buying source codes!

Post: #23

(11-03-2013 10:29 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  ...but you're not an Android or IOS programmer, what's the best way of going about bringing your ideal to fruition? I figure I'd have to write up a non-disclosure form for any prospective programmers I hire so they don't steal the ideal. And probably not hire any programmers in another country like India where they may not respect our intellectual property rights. Though hiring an American programmer may be prohibitively expensive for me. Has anyone done this before?

I am going to tell you exactly like it is. You need to learn how to code AND market if you're still a peasant. If you have money and I am talking big money not a chump change, then you should hire LOCAL developers. Cheapskates like to use shortcuts and pay shit rates to developers in third world and expect quality. Newsflash: you get what you pay. I can see that some of you will jump at me, but I don't give a shit because I know my shit well.

Post: #24

(11-06-2013 07:54 AM)roid Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 11:32 AM)gsinplaya Wrote:  I also know of other people who have done the same who have app businesses that pull in 6 figures per month so I dont believe you should be writing off odesk.

I call bullshit on this.

(11-05-2013 03:16 PM)outhustleu Wrote:  I can't speak to app design but at least with SEO, PPC, web design, most American companies don't even do the work themselves, they outsource the work to Indian and charge you 3x what they paid.

I just got a website built that here would have cost $15,000. Cost me $3300 and I had a team of 6 working for 40 days on the rollout. Also, my SEO which a company charges $1500 a month here for, I pay $450 to an Indian company.

The company I use is used by some major car comanies, pharmaceutical companies, etc. The only headache is the communication barrier and if I want to have a confrence call with my team it's gotta be at 1AM chicago time which is when they are getting into the office.

That just means some shitty SEO companies in the US outsource their link building to the guys in India. Again, these SEO companies will go bust anyway if not for their marketing prowess. These types of semi-automatic link building using blackhat tools will eventually lower your site ranks. Legit SEO companies charge a lot of more money and they will stand the test of time.

I have hired a number of SEO guys in the past and all have been garbage. These guys had me pick 30 keywords and claimed to be able to get first page rank within a year for 11 of he 30 terms. Within less than two months they have first page ranking for 2 terms already, i'm really quite surprised, I had always been told if anyone gurantees you results they are or orverpromisiing but these guys seem to be delivering, I'm only about 4-5 months into the project.

Post: #25

(11-05-2013 10:52 AM)RioNomad Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 10:27 AM)roid Wrote:  

(11-03-2013 10:29 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  ...but you're not an Android or IOS programmer, what's the best way of going about bringing your ideal to fruition? I figure I'd have to write up a non-disclosure form for any prospective programmers I hire so they don't steal the ideal. And probably not hire any programmers in another country like India where they may not respect our intellectual property rights. Though hiring an American programmer may be prohibitively expensive for me. Has anyone done this before?

You can try shitty marketplace like elance but you won't get quality work. I know some people later will come and say that their experience is the otherwise lol. But I am an experienced developer, and my rate is more than $1000 per day. There's no way that average Joe's can afford to pay me and certainly not race-to-the-bottom market like elance and all.

Since you're an experienced developer how about some advice on how to find affordable programmers? Surely not everyone charges more than $1,000 per day.

I've done some work on RentACoder, it can totally depend. You might get lucky and find a good guy who's between jobs or trying to make some mad money and won't charge an arm and a leg.

Everyone's talking about India, but Eastern Europe has tons of highly educated talent. The company I work for has a bunch of guys under contract in Ukraine, and that relationship has worked out well.

As others have said, you can try to protect your IP, but patents are expensive and 99% of the time, you don't have a unique enough algorithm to matter, 90% of the time, marketing will trump everything, and even with a patent, you have to have the finances to pursue someone who violates it. I'd be way more worried about a patent troll suing me - believe me, that happens a lot.

I think you can make this work if you outsource. The challenge is going to be communication. Build a really elaborate spec. Detail everything - if you don't, the dev is likely to take the easy way out. Screen mockups at least, use wireframe.cc or there's other similar sites out there. AutoDesk also has a nice iPad app I've used for mockups. Think about the failure cases: what happens when something goes wrong?

Here's a good example spec. You don't have to follow it to the letter, but Joel's got the right idea, IMO. Write stories, think in terms of the user, and always think in terms of your deliverable - have CONCRETE METRICS so if it comes to arguing with your dev, you can hold him to his promises.

Elance, ODesk, etc. will take your side in arbitration if you have documentation to back it up, and everybody wants to get paid, especially if they're working for a few bucks an hour. Plus, you're way more likely to get realistic bids if you've put the work into a spec.