How do I know if a developer is any good if I'm not technical?

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VX-N · Accepted Answer

You cannot assess their code, so assess their reasoning. A good developer explains the tradeoff in plain language, tells you what they are not going to build, and gives you a smaller first milestone rather than a single large one. Confidence without caveats is the warning sign. Ask for a small paid first step — a plan, a mock, a working demo of the riskiest part. What comes back tells you more than any interview, and it caps your exposure if the fit is wrong. The other reliable tell is documentation. If nobody but them can understand how the thing works, you have hired a dependency.