Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

As someone hip-deep in professional services: consider whether the answer to "freelancing sites are terrible for software developers" is "we need better freelancer sites", or whether instead the answer is "freelancer matchmaking sites are generally not in the best interests of freelancers".

In this rare instance I think I'll try speaking for Patrick McKenzie, a fellow consultant, along with myself: we think the answer is the latter.

If you're aiming for the most lucrative work, the conversation you want to be having with prospective clients has very little to do with anything you'd put on a developer portfolio, and a lot more to do with (a) being able to speak the language of business (ie: making a credible benefits-focused pitch and understanding how "customer service" principles apply to our kind of work) and (b) being able to tailor a case study or two to a client.

The latter might sound like something you could profitably host on a freelancer site, but the kind of case study I'm talking about works more like a resume cover letter than the resume itself.

Thomas wrote substantially what I wanted to write.

Edit to expand:

So some of the features of WorkMob were easy for you to write, but are not in the best interests of many people who could potentially work for you. If your design showcases to clients that "Number of OSS projects" or "Number of Github followers" are how you rate developers, your clients might actually develop the impression that those two numbers a) matter and b) matter quite a lot.

Instead of being inspired by freelance portfolios, which devote 95% of the emphasis to What and 5% of the emphasis to Why, maybe you should look at case studies by consulting firms who are good at what they do.

One I wrote which drove substantial additional business for me: http://blog.fogcreek.com/our-marketing-is-up-fog-creek-and-w...

One which I was not involved with, but which I routinely recommend for people when they ask "How do I write a case study?": http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/seomoz-case-study/

You'll note that neither of these is particularly intensive from a features-required-to-support-the-case-study perspective. All you need is a blogging engine that lets you add images. For bonus points, email capture.

Segmenting freelancers by technology is an even more fundamental problem with this design.

Thanks for the detailed response Patrick,

I see your point. We're finding that we want to focus in on real validated feedback from past clients and simple case studies of the work.

We're still thinking through the actual metrics that make sense to profile, and I can definitely see that Github scores might not be very important.

I'd love to go deeper in how we can create a framework for case studies if you're free to connect offline. matt@theworkmob.com

I hope this conversation can continue online. There's a lot to be learned from it.

We agree that freelancer matchmaking sites are generally not in the best interests of freelancers.

We've taken the position of freelancer discovery over matchmaking. Our goal is to give freelancers a great way to be discovered by filtered clients, based on specific skills and experience qualifications.

We want make it possible for freelancers and clients to find each other more efficiently, and we're not going to be involved with the actual project or contract.

For your example, we might serve as the place where the client found the 3 consultants that were invited to pitch with a cover letter, resume, and case studies.

The philosophical problem with all freelancer sites is that they position consultants as substitutable offerings that can be selected off a shelf. There are some fields (graphic design, for instance) where this is apparently not too damaging. But I think it's (in practice) very bad positioning for software consultants, and, not coincidentally, an unhelpful mental model for buyers to adopt.

The PG review is not real! This is a demo of what we think an awesome freelancer portfolio should look like. Sorry if that was at all misleading.

I hear you on the "commoditization" of freelance software work, and we're actually trying to fight that. We're trying to build the freelancer site that actually built for the freelancer, and gives them a way to be found by the types of clients they're looking for. VS. what exists today where freelancers bid against each other, have to deal with shitty job descriptions, and less than awesome clients.

Would love to talk more offline if you're open to it. matt@theworkmob.com

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