Jordan Reyes
July 2, 2026 · 8 min read
Mistake one: hiring a React developer and calling it Shopify
React skills transfer to Hydrogen storefronts, and only there. Liquid, Metaobjects, Functions, and the Admin API are an entirely different discipline that takes years to build.
The fastest screen is a single question: 'walk me through a checkout extensibility migration you did.' If they describe checkout.liquid edits, they have not worked on Plus in the last year.
Mistake two: buying hours instead of outcomes
Hourly engagements without a written scope drift endlessly. The bill is never for the hours — it is for the ambiguity. Every senior engagement we start begins with a fixed scope of work.
You should be able to point at a deliverable list and a timeline before any code is written. If you cannot, you are not hiring a developer, you are hiring a lottery ticket.
Mistake three: trusting the portfolio screenshot
A polished storefront screenshot proves a designer's skill, not a developer's. Ask for the metric the build moved: load time, conversion rate, checkout abandonment, app spend.
Developers who ship care about numbers. The ones who only care about aesthetics leave that part to designers — and you want both, not either.
Mistake four: skipping merchant reference calls
References should not be other agencies — they should be the merchants. One 15-minute call asking 'what broke after launch and how fast did they fix it' exposes more than ten interviews.
We publish case studies with named outcomes for exactly this reason. You should expect any serious partner to offer the same.
Mistake five: choosing on rate alone
The lowest bidder's rework is your cost. A $60/hour developer who needs three passes at a migration costs more than a $150/hour specialist who nails it in one — and loses your rankings while doing it.
Compare total cost of ownership: rate times hours plus the cost of missed launch dates and recovery work.
Mistake six: ignoring the handoff
A project that ends without documentation, environment access, and a recorded walkthrough is a project that owns you forever. Always scope the handoff as a paid deliverable.
Ask before signing: 'what does launch day documentation include?' If the answer is a shrug, you already have your answer about post-launch support.
Mistake seven: onboarding with no rollback plan
Every real engagement touches production at some point. Developers who do not ask about your rollback procedure, staging environment, or deployment windows will introduce themselves to your customers at the worst possible moment.
The question 'how do you deploy and how do you roll back?' separates people who have operated stores from people who have only built demos.
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