Portfolio: Look at Real Products
Ask to see real, live products — not mockups or case study screenshots. Visit the App Store or Play Store links. Open the web apps. If a company can't show you 3–5 live products built for clients in the past 2 years, that's a red flag. When you look at their work: Does it load quickly? Does it feel polished? Are there obvious quality issues? You don't need to be technical to assess whether a product feels well-made.
Process: How Do They Work?
Ask specifically: How often will we see progress? What does a typical sprint look like? How do you handle change requests? What project management tools do you use, and will we have access? A good development partner should be able to describe their process clearly. Vague answers like "we're agile" without specifics are a yellow flag. You want: regular demos (at least every 2 weeks), access to a staging environment, and a clear change management process.
Communication: How Responsive Are They?
Before signing anything, notice how they communicate during the sales process. Do they respond to emails within 24 hours? Are their answers clear and specific? Do they ask good questions about your project, or just give you a generic pitch? Their communication during sales is the best preview of their communication during development. If they're slow or vague before you've paid them, it won't get better after.
Team: Who Actually Works on Your Project?
Ask: Who will be working on my project day-to-day? What are their seniority levels? Will you use freelancers or full-time employees? Some agencies sell with their senior team and build with junior developers or subcontractors. Ask to meet the actual team — the developers and designers who will work on your product — before signing. A 30-minute technical call with the team working on your project is a reasonable request.
Red Flags to Watch For
Be cautious if: The quote comes back within hours with no clarifying questions (they haven't read your brief). The price is dramatically below other quotes (scope is missing or quality will suffer). They promise features in timelines that experienced developers would immediately flag as unrealistic. They can't provide references you can actually call. Their contract has no milestones or acceptance criteria — just a final delivery date. They ask for a large upfront payment before any work is done.
Why Kolkata Specifically?
Kolkata has strong engineering talent, lower costs than Mumbai or Bangalore, and a growing base of product-focused companies (rather than just services outsourcing). When evaluating local companies, the advantages are: easier in-person meetings, aligned time zones for Indian market products, understanding of local market contexts (UPI, regional languages, Indian business workflows), and often better value than equivalent quality in metro cities. The disadvantages: smaller talent pool, fewer established product-focused firms. Do your due diligence and look at real work.
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