Before I Hand You My Software
This is how I feel about your app
I get to see your app come to life before anyone else. You’ve been dreaming of this for the last 10 years. You’ve been iterating over it’s uses over and over again in your head.
And here I am, holding your app in my hands, before you’ve even seen it. It may not be perfect, but it’s finally real. Don’t you wish you could be here for this moment?
As a custom web and app development shop, we join companies to help build their applications. Sometimes we’re hired to be completely outsourced and then maintenance. Sometimes we come on as partners to join an initiative. This is about the former.
A 3 hour phone call at 2pm. We go over all the nity grity details of your app. We call this pre-pre proposal stage. Or the “getting to know you phase”. Because we’ve chosen to work on just one project at a time, we get to then decide if we want you. Basically you pour your guts out to me on Skype or Hangouts and I rip it apart.
I’m not too nice, but not too harsh. You’re coming to me because I have 10+ years in development so you’re open to my opinion. I read the news and follow the threads so I may know what’s out there already.
After you divulge all your secrets and your plans to rule the world via your xyz for abc app, I boil the entire thing down to a bullet point list.
Maybe a page long, I list out the major parts of the app, and then each of the “hard” parts of the app. If the app had no “hard parts” then we wouldn’t be taking it. For us to take on a new app, it must have at least 3-5 things in it we haven’t done before. If we aren’t learning; we’re losing.
I then boil down these bullets into numbers. Hours. How long will it take the team to do the work. We also add client communication in this list because, let’s face it, you and I are going to become pretty great friends over the next 2-3 months. And if we don’t, we’re doing something wrong.
This bullet point list is called a “pre-proposal”. It’s not a contract, but a TODO list. It’s everything you’ve worked so hard for in about 250 words or less. Just translate this into an app and you’re on your way.
At this stage, the app is a little bit less yours than it was when we started. We get really into the apps we build. So I have to feel some sort of ownership of the app. Not on paper, just that my ideas and my goals are being met as well as yours. I heard you out, I know where you’re coming from and what you’re trying to accomplish, so let’s put all this together.
The next big phase is explaining my bullet list to you. This is my interpretation of your app. This is your architecture plan that you could give to anyone else and they could build your app. This is a transliteration of founder speak to developer speak. This is free of charge. Our gift to you. It’s the least we could do since I will be there to witness the birth of your app in your absence.
Once you agree that my bullet list covers exactly what your vision is, and you’ve agreed on our ballpark cost number — we now get into the dirt. Now it’s time to give the project to the project manager to inflate my developer transliterations into marketing speak. This will be your contract. We will make exactly this. If you need more than this, that will cost you. If you’re a development shop and you don’t charge for out-of-scope work you will go out of business in a long slow choking death.
We have pretty strict payment terms too. Every two weeks a percentage of the project is paid for. This is because I need you to be on point. I need you get back to me right away, and I need you to keep the team fueled. We can’t make magic happen on a promise. Unfortunately.
Once the proposal is signed and agreed, as well as the retainer paid, the work begins. We like to jump the gun and get you visuals as soon as humanly possible. Motivating you is part of our job.
Since most of our stuff is fully custom, from scratch work we have foundation and frameworks to build. We get those out of the way on day one, followed by your first screen.
And there you have it. Your app is in my hand. I’m literally holding everything you’ve always wanted. But it’s 2am and you’re asleep. The team is excited. A beer is to be had, if it hasn’t already.
When this is done, I’ll hand you the keys and you’ll take it from there. But it will always hold a solid place in my heart.
We are ConnectAi and we build custom web apps.
I make youtube videos teaching other programmers how to do my job. Check it out https://www.youtube.com/user/optikalefxx
Photo Credit Thomas Bayer 500px
