Have a Killer App Idea? DON’T Build It Yourself. Here’s What You Should Do Instead.
November 23, 2020
Let’s get real. We all know what happens when a business doesn’t keep pace with technology. From taxi companies to bookstores, you’ve watched with your own eyes how innumerable companies ‒ sometimes entire industries ‒ have gone the way of the Blockbuster. If you don’t innovate, somebody else will…and they’ll quickly pull the rug right out from under you. But innovation isn’t easy. ‘Embracing’ technology, as it were, takes more than an attitude change. It requires technology that works for your specific business, and that’s not always something you can get off the shelf. Sure, you might get lucky and find a secure, affordable solution that happens to work perfectly for your business out-of-the-box. But if your business is dynamic and ever-changing, it would be rare to find a good fit. What’s more likely is this: There’s a solution on the market that almost does what you need it to do…but it’s not quite there in a way that’s holding your business back. OR… You’ve found an app that works okay for your business, but you know that it could be executed so much better (after all, you know your business better than anyone.) It’s also possible you’re envisioning a digital product that’s nothing like anything else out there right…even though you know there’s a market for it. In any case, you need something more than what the current market has on offer. And you have some idea of what ‘more’ should be. The next step? Well, it’s obvious: put up some money, find some developers, start spinning that idea into your company’s killer app. …At least that’s how most people would think. Here’s the truth… Developing a custom software application can be a minefield of financial risk, stress, and management nightmares. So many founders who set out to develop their own app entirely in-house have lived to regret it. Most of the businesses involved in those ventures don’t make it out alive. But wait: I’m not saying you should rip up your plans and abandon your idea right here. Quite the opposite. I want to help you do that idea justice. You might be surprised to hear this, but very few companies actually build all their own software exclusively in-house. In fact, not even the biggest tech titans ‒ Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Uber, even Google ‒ take all of their development into their own hands (even though they could if they wanted to…) All of them, at various points, have strategically leveraged developers from outside of the company. Why Innovative Companies Don’t Always Build In-House With the right development partner, any forward-thinking business ‒ from startups to enterprises and everything in between ‒ can leverage outside development talent to bring their software vision into reality. But to be clear, I’m not saying that you should offload all of your work onto a third-party developer. Once your solution is live, it pays to have skilled workers permanently on staff to roll out day-to-day updates and bug fixes, troubleshoot, and so on. That’s one of the beauties of partnering with an industry leader like Weavik. Your in-house development team, through the course of working with an outside agency, can gain tons of invaluable skills and experience in a very short window of time. By the end, you and the rest of your internal staff can walk away with a crash-course in all things relating to your product and then some. Circling back to the big question ‒ why, exactly, do so many companies with in-house resources still outsource all or part of their dev work to agencies? Well, it really comes down to two key points. Leveraging outside development talent provides key skills and expertise at a fraction of the cost of hiring that talent in-house. Partnering with a development agency is the fastest and most cost-effective way to scale your team and accelerate time-to-market. Let’s break that down. 1. An Effective Partnership Is Money In The Bank. The Silicon Valley Big 5 have access to the best development talent in the world. But that talent doesn’t come cheap. There’s still a huge gap in the supply and demand for tech talent. By some estimates, there’s one qualified software developer available for every five jobs (keep in mind that not all developers have remotely the same skillset.) Talent is a limited resource, and it’s priced accordingly. What’s more, not all the skills you’ll need to get your ideas off the ground are things you’ll need on hand post-launch. You’ll want a software architect to lay the groundwork to ensure your product can scale, for example, but you probably won’t need them post-launch. You’ll need a firmware dev to get your IoT device to market, but probably not for day-to-day maintenance. That’s a lot of time, money, and effort spent recruiting, onboarding, and managing a temporary role. But here’s the good news. You don’t actually need to hire for these roles to get the quality software product your business needs right now. You can leverage an entire team of talent ‒ including the specific skills and expertise your project needs ‒ for a fraction of the cost of hiring for those roles even temporarily. In most cases, this cost difference is the biggest reason why startups like [company] and enterprises like [company] outsource parts of their development to industry experts like Weavik. But as you’ll see, cost isn’t the only reason innovative companies love working with us. It’s also about results. 2. Partnerships Get Your Product to Market Faster. At this day and age, time-to-market can literally make or break your business. When you’re not in the business of building software, developing in-house is often a slow, arduous process – especially when you’re doing it with a team you just put together from scratch. And even if you are in the software business, time is still a limited resource. There’s only so much that one team can do. A more hands-on deck could help speed things up on the development side, but that also means more heads to manage…not to mention more people on payroll. That’s where developers like Weavik come in. Weavik isn’t just a tech partner. We’re an extension of your internal team. When you’re under pressure to get your product to market, our experts can step in to help you push it out the door on time and on budget. But you don’t have to wait until it’s crunch time to leverage our talent. We’ll also help you validate, design, and develop your idea from concept to launch, guiding you throughout the entire product lifecycle. It’s a win, win, win. So, Who Can You Trust? For many companies, outsourcing all or part of development is, bar none, the fastest and most cost-effective way to bring a software idea to life. It’s how many of the world’s most dominant tech companies continually produce cutting-edge digital products at such incredible speed and quality. And for companies that aren’t big players – but who are committed to solving a problem by embracing technology – it can be the decisive advantage that helps them un-stick internal processes, upgrade customer experiences, and push groundbreaking products to market. Still, outsourcing is not without risks. There are literally thousands of developers around the globe. Needless to say, not all of them pull their weight equally. Not even close. You need a development partner with a proven, demonstrable track record of success helping companies like yours with projects like yours. LinkedIn profiles and canned testimonials won’t work here. You’ll have to go deeper. You want to accelerate time-to-market? Ask the dev how they helped someone beat out a competitor, and by what margin. Trying to bring your process into the 21st century? Find out exactly how they did that before…and whether their solution actually ‘stuck.’ Working on a minimum viable product? Ask about the last founder who went to them and see how it turned out. That’s the kind of transparency you should expect if you’re going to trust somebody with your tech. Put it this way: at Weavik, we don’t even lay a finger on our clients’ ideas until we’ve gone through a thorough Discovery process to make absolutely sure we’re the right fit. We provide full transparency to our partners. Right now, I know you have an incredible software idea. A game-changer for your business. Ideas like that deserve a team that can do it justice. My team and I love meeting entrepreneurs who are passionate leaders who are committed to solving a problem by embracing technology. I can’t say if Weavik is right for you. But I can promise you this: if you reach out to us now, you’ll walk away from the conversation with a crystal-clear vision of the next steps you should take on your software journey. Contact Us!
