Here’s a fun one. How can one waste as much money as possible when buying software development services?

Not the type of question you expected, right? If you think about it, you are bound to have one example of someone who decided to invest in creating a digital project, and the whole project turns out to be a complete dumpster fire.

Don’t worry! This article will show you the exact steps you must take to achieve the same results. Keep in mind that these indications apply to absolutely any type of digital product you want to build: websites, mobile apps, custom software, and even routine tech consulting meetings. Are you ready? Let’s go!

The first aspect you want to pay attention to is the SPECIFICATIONS WRITING.

You should want to skip this step altogether and speak your mind during the first meeting. But if you don’t want to cut it, try to be as vague as possible, don’t consult with any of your partners or users, and don’t mention any scope. After all, you want to change it later on, right? Oh, and instead of detailing the features of your product, tell the developers you wish to copy the “X” application and don’t further elaborate on how it would apply to your product.

The second step is the FIRST AGENCY MEETING.

If you want to lose the most money, your main priority should be to ignore any feature-related issues and focus on squeezing the tightest deadline possible. Moreover, withhold some critical information about your idea. Who has time for NDAs? After all, you don’t want the developers to steal your big idea.

The next step is PROPOSAL ANALYSIS.

Here you want to take as much time as possible to analyze the proposal. Two to three months is decent. After not communicating with the developers for this period, contact them and ask them to start working on your project as soon as possible. Bonus points if you insist on maintaining the initial deadline even though you ghosted them for three months. Moreover, try to renegotiate the fee. Point out that you know some junior freelancers capable of doing it way cheaper. This will motivate the premium developers to reduce their fees.

Now it’s time for tips on interacting with your developers during the actual DEVELOPMENT time.

Ignore the project manager and ask for your developers’ phone number so you can directly communicate with them. And don’t worry about the time when you text them. You know developers are constantly working during night hours. Moreover, ask the developer to add or remove features regardless of their impact on the overall costs while keeping the project manager in the dark. Be as inflexible as possible regarding the deadlines and always refuse to pay for the additional expenses incurred even if it was objectively your fault. Schedule as many essential activities on release day and ask for changes to be made a couple of days before. Remember: Don’t tell them about your press release. It’s not their business!

Never use email; it’s an outdated technology. Messaging apps are your way to go. Also, you don’t need to come prepared for any meeting. You’re paying for their time; make them brainstorm with you.

The final step is POST-LAUNCH.

Do not have any form of maintenance plan with your developers. If something comes up, call them, you have their phone number, remember? Stress out the urgency of the matter and expect it to be fixed overnight.

Ideally, you should have a second team of developers, or your in-house developer, working on the project simultaneously. If anything happens, you will have two resources working independently to solve your problems.

The final-final step.

It’s time to be honest. All these things happened to us at one point, and we are sure we are not the only ones. There’s no point in passing blame around, but these things happen, and in the end, we both lose time and money in these situations. Don’t put yourself in this situation, and try to avoid being that client in the example above if you wish to obtain the best outcome for your project. Find an agency you can trust and work together to build successful digital products.

If you happen to relate to anything I have said above, start looking for those behaviors during your next big project and avoid them as much as possible.

If you want our input on your digital products, feel free to book a free strategy call with Adi, Neo Vision’s CEO.

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