Let’s say you are a founder of ‘SuperStartup’ and you have a feature that promises 200k MRR and the market is super hot!
I mean every one is asking for that feature asap.

You did accounting and you can spend 50k to release your first version of that feature.

Unfortunately, your dev team is under water…

They have a huge bug’s queu and they need to compose with it as it represents the main reason for CHURNS…

Now to develop that feature you have the choice between:

  1. Rewrite the app and absorb all bugs so the team can now fully focus on that new awesome feature.

But…does it cost 50k? And would that stop the bugs flow?

  1. Hire more developers, onboard them and then ask them to correct bugs so the seniors can focus on the feature.

Hire maximum given the budget…
But what is the cost of onboarding them, how long it will take them to start being productive? Will they produce quality fixes? does it really cost 50k?

  1. Delegate the feature to an external agency with risk of buggy integration with your current system, management issues? Misunderstanding caused by lack of communication, rigid plans?…does it cost 50k?

  2. Provide the team learning and coaching so they can produce better software but then nothing is done until they are ready…and will they really become ready?

does it cost 50k?

  1. Shift the team focus and ask them to exclusively work on that new feature and take the risk to higher the CHURN risk…does it cost 50k?

All option will bring to, sooner or later, to serious problems.

The 50k cost is a bad estimate as clients may churn on the way, bugs are created even in the new feature and you will need to spend money to fix them, the startup image is hit by continuous dysfunctions and functional anomalies which results on bad reputation and bigger marketing budget…

sustainable pace,
continuous delivery,
technical excellence,
software craftsmanship practices,
smooth collaboration,
Product and technical engineering as a unit…those are in the heart of the software success recipe.

Without them you will step forward but you will be out passed.
You will be slowed down and will spend enormous amount of money and time on things you don’t fully understand.

Build your tech culture as soon as possible! Build a set of practices that let you be ready for changes easily, that make your app bug free and give you the luxury to focus on what really matters for your clients.

#startup #engineering #softwarecraftsmanship