My first tech project as a non-technical founder was a deals site, like Groupon. I hired a dev team and it turned out to be an over budget, low quality disaster. I’ve talked about it before, but for the purposes of this article, I’ll just say that I remember being frustrated at the development team because of the time required to review the supposedly finished work. Reviewing deliverables took forever, much more than I anticipated it would.
Granted, they were particularly bad at delivering high quality code, but I’ve since learned that the product team, probably you, the non-technical founder, needs to budget time to review deliverables to make sure they satisfy the business goals. There just isn’t a way to delegate this, particularly at first. Someone needs to be available for this.
If your developer team is good, they’ll adapt quickly to your preferences and values, and optimize for them, but it will still take time to review every change and make sure it is working as expected. Even with good developers, there are many opportunities for miscommunication or misunderstanding. I’ve yet to meet a developer who never missed a request. I know you’re likely one of the most busy people on your team, but you have to realize that you’re the resident expert on your business and you have to work closely with your team lead and project manager, otherwise you have to delegate that to someone equally expert on your team.
So, when you’re ready to start your next tech project, just remember, you can’t throw things over a wall and expect it to come back perfect. The only way to breach the wall and approach perfection is to budget the time.
This article is part of a series of articles designed to help non-technical founders find success on technical projects. For all our tips and tricks, download our free Guide to Tech Projects for Non-technical Founders.
If you need help with your next project, Buink has years of experience managing and completing technical projects on time, under budget, and with a high level of quality. Contact Buink today.
