By Olivia Koenig

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Development of your minimum viable product (MVP) is a pretty sweet spot for a founder to be in. You’ve got your concept locked in, a core teammate or two, and perhaps even some funding secured.   Many founders attempt to bootstrap their own web or mobile development; in other words, they try to learn to code and undertake the production and deployment of their application on their own. Motivations for taking this route are varied.  Some founders are resistant to the notion of handing out equity in their company (also known as dilution), while others believe that being the architectural authority on their app is key to long-term success.  The reality is that timing is of the essence.  Getting your platform live with an active user base is paramount to scaling (and turning a profit).  Read on for 5 reasons founders should always, always delegate development to engineers.

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1. Versioning and Updates

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Timing is important when it comes to getting your app to market.  In Lean Startup, Eric Ries explains that the whole point of a minimum viable product is “to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”  That data is needed to make crucial decisions about the direction and evolution of your platform.  In any competitive market, there are obvious implications for delaying the development of your user base–and receipt of the initial data from your platform’s first month(s) of traffic.

Versioning (not to be confused with version control) comes into play when you’re taking that data and using it to actually improve your product and services.  When professional developers are behind your MVP, evolving your app becomes a smooth, organized, and fruitful endeavor.  When MVPs are  bootstrapped by founders, initial functionality tends to be cobbled together–which means growing, improving, and fixing the app will be especially challenging.  Furthermore, there are best practices regarding app versioning. Learning these customs while developing coding skills will likely not be achievable for a founder–whose primary responsibility is (and should be) fundraising.

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2. Crashes

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Crashes and glitching happen–how your startup handles these scenarios is what will set you apart from the competition.  The process of triaging major performance issues for a mobile app has a great deal of nuance and requires a top-to-bottom knowledge of the platform’s architecture and functionality.  For instance, the ability to determine if a crash is impacting all users or a segment of them is crucial.  Broadcasting a major performance issue can give your competition the edge; experienced engineers will know how to trace the bug, fix it, and determine who was (and wasn’t affected).  

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3. Security and Data Vulnerability

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The security of your platform–and the user data you accumulate–present a major risk for the success of your startup.  Monitoring these factors is a full-time job.  Integrating security measures into your application is one of the best investments into future success.  Losing trust and credibility through a data breach is a blow many startups never fully recover from.  Mobile developers are trained and experienced in best practices regarding security–especially when they work in conjunction with a dedicated cybersecurity engineer.  Taking on salaried employees (or offering them equity) can seem like a huge investment of limited, early-stage resources.  What you’re really investing in, however, is a foundation for app crisis management–and eliminating the possibility of compromising your users’ data.  Remember: these breaches can be grounds for legal action, which is the absolute last thing your early-stage startup needs.

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4. QA and Testing

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Quality assurance is a necessary measure for any company.  Guaranteeing a standard for your products, services, or experiences is a pillar of establishing market share.  In terms of mobile app development, QA is an ongoing process that aims to ensure the platform’s functionality across all user profiles and experiences.  Developing the testing protocol for your app is, again, a full-time endeavor that cannot be undertaken lightly.  By covering a standardized regimen that has been customized to your specific platform, you can guarantee that the application will deliver a consistent experience–which is core to user retention.  In other words, when executed properly by QA developers, a suite of tests and checks will ensure bugs are caught before a version goes live.

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5. Accessibility

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Assuring accessibility for all users of your platform isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s becoming a legal matter.  If your users are not able to use your application, you run the risk of being sued.  Even if a founder conceivably put together a minimum viable product that functioned at a basic level (without compromising security or functionality), ensuring accessibility stands as an additional consideration that likely would not get the attention it needed.  Accessibility development is a specialized form of software engineering.  Many principles of accommodating users are straightforward–for instance, ensuring that the escape key can successfully close a window, or accounting for alt text to accompany all image assets.  These are “tip of the iceberg” considerations, however.  There is a great deal of detail and nuance when it comes to universalizing the user experience, as well as an absolutely mandatory knowledge of past, present, and emerging accessibility technologies.  Again, ensuring accessibility is the right thing to do; but legal action regarding a lack of accessibility is a very real possibility for any company that publishes an application.  Thus, investing in proper authorities on the subject will save you a great deal of trouble down the road.

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