How to Lose the Most Money When Buying Software Development Services

How can you waste as much money as possible when buying software development services? Not the question you expected, right? You probably know someone who invested in a digital project and watched the whole thing turn into a complete dumpster fire.

Do not worry. This article shows you the exact steps to achieve the same result. It applies to any digital product you want to build: websites, mobile apps, custom software, and even routine tech consulting meetings. Ready? Let's go.

Skip this step altogether, and be firm about it in the first meeting. Your team will try to talk you out of it, but stay strong. Otherwise you might not waste any money.

If you do decide to write specs, be as vague as possible. “Don't listen to anyone” is solid advice whenever you want to fail, so ignore partners and users, and never mention scope. You want to change it all later anyway, right?

And instead of detailing your product's features, tell the developers you want to copy the “X” app. Do not explain how it applies to your product. Keep them guessing, and tell them you read that in Sun Tzu's “Art of War.”

To lose the most money, ignore every feature-related question and squeeze in the tightest deadline you can. Then withhold critical details about your idea, in case the devs try to steal it. Sure, you could have them sign an NDA like every sane founder does, but that takes away from your mystique.

And never come prepared. Be a free spirit and come up with ideas as you go.

Take as long as humanly possible to review the proposal. Two to three months is about right. After going silent the whole time, resurface and ask them to start ASAP. And assume ASAP means today.

Bonus points if you insist on keeping the original deadline even though you ghosted them for three months. While you are at it, renegotiate the fee. Mention the junior freelancers who would do it far cheaper. Premium developers love being told this, and will surely drop their rates.

Ignore the project manager and ask your developers for their personal phone numbers so you can reach them directly. Do not worry about what time you text, office hours or not. Devs are light sleepers anyway. And never use email. Have your dev install your favorite messaging app instead. They keep one per client, that is how communication stays nice and tidy.

Ask the developer to add or drop features without a thought for the cost, and keep the project manager in the dark. Be completely inflexible on deadlines and always refuse to pay for extras. Schedule every essential task for release day, and request changes a few days before.

Do not mention the press release where you promised things the team cannot deliver. Developers can always pull their brief straight from the news. “But we already told the press” is a wonderful way to get more features, faster, than anyone agreed to.

Do not plan any maintenance. If something breaks, call them. You have the phone number, remember? Stress how urgent it is and expect a fix overnight.

Ideally, keep a second team, or your in-house developer, working on the same project at the same time. That way, if anything happens, you have two groups solving the same problem independently, with no idea about each other.

Time to be honest. Every one of these happened to us at some point, and we are not the only ones. There is no point passing blame around, these things happen. In the end, both sides lose time and money. Worse, you drag your teams through the grind, or feed their work to the shredder, and that is how people burn out.

Do not put yourself in this spot. If any of this sounds familiar, watch for these behaviors on your next big project and steer clear of them.

Want our input on your digital product? Book a free strategy call with Adi, Neo Vision's CEO. For more, read how to prepare for your first call and how to avoid getting scammed. Ready to do it right instead? Book a call with Neo Vision.