Dream Homes & Dream Apps

Planning to develop custom software is like planning your perfect home.

Published in

Launch Lab

5 min readMay 29, 2019

As I look back on almost fifteen years of helping business leaders develop custom software, I can see how much my thinking has evolved. I used to avoid the “building software is like building a house” analogy because there are places where it breaks down.

Today, Mindbox has evolved our approach to resemble the roles of general contractors and architects in construction. It’s helped us help our clients succeed, both as software startups and corporate implementors. As new home builders, it’s easy for new software owners to make expensive mistakes. Spending that much money and having to rebuild major parts of your investment within a couple of years can put a lot of stress on a young company.

Building a Dream

Let’s pretend that you’ve decided to build your dream home. You want to do your homework, so you google “how to build your dream home” and find this 7 step guide. The steps:

Set goals.
Establish a budget.
Find some land.
Assemble a team.
Plan, plan, and plan some more.
Accept the inevitable.
Enjoy your new home.

You’re Ready to Start

First, you make a list of all of your must-haves for your dream house. Then, you plan your funding. As you assess the budget and ideal location, you start to explore who would be the best suited to lead your project.

Let’s face it. There’s zero chance you’re going to go out right now and find a construction team, show them your vision board, and give them the green light to break ground. If you could even find a construction team that would agree to that, they’re either going to reuse someone else’s dream house plan with a few tweaks or they’re likely to start building the foundation without a solid plan for the utilities.

Assuming there are no prefab homes on the market that will meet your dream home requirements, you’re going to want to find an architect early. They’ll guide the creative process, design concepts, and blueprints you’ll need to get estimates on the full build.

Meanwhile, you’re searching for the best general contractor for the project. You’ve heard stories about home building disasters and you know you want to find someone with experience to make sure it comes in on-time and on-budget. Plus, you don’t want to be caught up in communication between the architect, builders, and other subcontractors. I mean, are you really experienced enough to avoid big, expensive mistakes as you work through each phase?

The Project Construction Cycle — The Tree Swing Analogy
Source: Project Cartoon

Assuming that your budget is finite, you’ll want your general contractor and/or builder to review the plans with your architect and make sure they agree with your budget and timeline. You want your designer and developer aligned on your priorities before they break ground.

The Blueprint

If you were building your dream home, you’d design it first. Your architect would have expertise in designing a home that can be built within your budget. Sure, you’ll make some discoveries along the way and the plan will change, but you have a reference point for all of your teams: the latest designs.

The most common mistake new software owners make is assuming that they can get an estimate without a plan. The second is hiring the developer first. Since there isn’t a universal model at this point, a software blueprint is harder to conceptualize, so it’s often overlooked.

Without the equivalent of a blueprint, developers often create a rough outline of the work to be completed and back-fill the requirements as they work. This fogs and distorts their vision of your end goal.

Why should it be any different with software?

Software’s General Contractor

When it comes to software, the general contractor is most similar to the product lead role. This may be referred to as a product manager or product owner, depending on the use case and organizational preference.

If you haven’t considered this role as an essential part of your dream software initiative yet, consider the following:

Preparing For the Inevitable

Remember number six on the home dreamer’s list? Accept the inevitable. Whether you’re talking about software or building a house, it’s important to plan for contingency. The best-laid plans go awry, so make sure you have a little bit set aside for that moment.

A good general contractor or product manager will have contingency plans in mind as they set expectations with you about cost and timeline. A good developer will, too. Everyone on your team needs to be ready for this reality.

Ready to Move In?

Your dream home is move-in ready. You’re “going live”.

Hopefully, you were able to stay pretty close to your original budget without too many surprises. Now that the biggest expense is behind you, it’s time to plan for the future.

As you look at your budget going forward, don’t forget to plan for: