As I went through the years working on web-related products, I noticed an off-putting trend that had to be changed. I observed that web projects took FOREVER to complete and usually were pretty off from the intended scope of work desired when completion finally arrived. This also means the budget and the timeline were shattered along the way.
What do we do about it?
Think of this as the time to market. Consider your web project a phased approach and not an all-or-nothing approach. You can get everything you want from your web product, but think in terms of MVP first to get it live and usable, then go to work on phase two initiatives, phase three initiatives, and you get the idea.
The web is alive and ongoing. It’s not really ever “off,” so get up the great first effort and then refine it and add features and functionality that makes sense for your business, your clients, and how the web world operates and changes. Are you willing to trade 6 – 18 months of waiting to go to market and go live? Just because you want as close to 100% of all possible features, functionality, the exact amount of any possible pages you might want, perfect SEO set up for all pages, 50 blog post written, all custom imagery and custom copy for all the possible pages you wanted? Again, you get the idea; this is an endless, stressful, and fun-sucking process that takes way too long.
Also, the scope of work will change during the longer duration, all-inclusive approach to web projects. Within that more extensive period, the team on the project finds new things to include in the deliverable, and team members may forget the original intent of the web project along the way. This approach leads to more confusion, frustration, and a possible convoluted resulting web product launched.
Makes sense. What now?
Set your foundational web product. Start with the essentials first, then decide if you want to add a few more pages or features before the first launch of your web product. You will spend the months anyway getting all the things together you ultimately want, so phase it out so you can start capitalizing on your web product. At the same time, you work on the additional features and functionality.
Think of it also as a real opportunity cost to delay your product for so many months. If no version of your product or service is not out in the market, then nothing is out there for potential users and customers to purchase from you.