[mpiccino]

I recently outsourced graphic design and development for my start-up, and definitely made some mistakes... To be sure, these might be unusual for HN readers since my co-founder and I didn't have a tech background, and many of our problems might have been avoided with more technical knowledge on our part.

So I guess the first advice would be, make sure you have sufficient knowledge & information on your side to determine whether advice you're getting is correct.

Make sure it is clear from the beginning who is going to project-manage the process, and if your contractors say they'll do it, make sure to have regular check-ins with the PM. In our case, they said they didn't need us to step in as PMs, but we realized only very late that they weren't really managing their process on their end.

We had huge delays because of this, some egregiously occurring because the graphic designer never gave the developer the right mocks and we only found out during QA.

Finally, I totally agree with the comment above to be really clear about requirements. Do not believe anyone who tells you that they don't need things spec'ed out.

In my experience a clear spec is the only guarantee that things will get done properly and that there is real accountability in the process.

Hope this helps!