My experience was not good. The work quality was subpar, and the turnaround time was significantly longer. Part of it was the time difference, I suppose. But there were also noticeable communication issues (bugs not being fixed, wrong layout, etc)–and I felt like we had to report the same issues over and over again before it got fixed.

Most of the times, it’s so much easier to get everyone on the same page when the person you’re working with is right in front of you. We eventually brought a developer in-house instead… which ended up being a boost to workflow & productivity.

Well… YMMV, I guess.

My experience was not good. The work quality was subpar, and the turnaround time was significantly longer. Part of it was the time difference, I suppose. But there were also noticeable communication issues (bugs not being fixed, wrong layout, etc)–and I felt like we had to report the same issues over and over again before it got fixed.

Most of the times, it’s so much easier to get everyone on the same page when the person you’re working with is right in front of you. We eventually brought a developer in-house instead… which ended up being a boost to workflow & productivity.

Well… YMMV, I guess.

Some positives from the experience:

1. I got excellent work done at much cheaper rates than if I hired a US team. I was very pleased with the quality of the work.
2. The Chinese team was really “hungry” and eager to learn. They were really disciplined, and that combo of eagerness and discipline made them a real pleasure to work with. I am not sure if this is a typical experience, though, but mine was really good.

Some negatives:

1. Time zone craziness – I was the only one in the US, so we met during their day. My late afternoons were typically busy with kids activities, so I would end up meeting with them in the middle of the evening.
2. Occasional communication problems. – I don’t speak Chinese, while some of the team didn’t speak English well (while I didn’t ask, I suspected that they didn’t speak Tagalog either.)
3. Occasional guilt trips – I got lectured by some people for not employing Americans and employing Chinese for the project.

For my next project, I will try to use this team again, but I have to say that the time zone hassles were a big pain that might persuade me not to use them.

Some positives from the experience:

1. I got excellent work done at much cheaper rates than if I hired a US team. I was very pleased with the quality of the work.
2. The Chinese team was really “hungry” and eager to learn. They were really disciplined, and that combo of eagerness and discipline made them a real pleasure to work with. I am not sure if this is a typical experience, though, but mine was really good.

Some negatives:

1. Time zone craziness – I was the only one in the US, so we met during their day. My late afternoons were typically busy with kids activities, so I would end up meeting with them in the middle of the evening.
2. Occasional communication problems. – I don’t speak Chinese, while some of the team didn’t speak English well (while I didn’t ask, I suspected that they didn’t speak Tagalog either.)
3. Occasional guilt trips – I got lectured by some people for not employing Americans and employing Chinese for the project.

For my next project, I will try to use this team again, but I have to say that the time zone hassles were a big pain that might persuade me not to use them.