Hey! this is Overpass insights my name is Eric and I make gaps now today I want to talk about how
sometimes projects fail and it can be really really hard
okay so today I want to talk about something that I don't normally talk about like
over the years with Overpass we've done we've done so many client projects I mean we must have
done about 50 like you know these you know some of them really really big some of them really small
but you know just like a lot of projects some of them just me working on them some of them
developers I'm working with and you know and it's been nice and one of the things I mean a lot
of successes a lot of happy clients all that kind of stuff and every so often we'll have a project
that fails like it's kind of thing I don't like to talk about because first of all, it's embarrassing
it's frustrating a lot of times there's a lot of bad blood at the end of it like a lot of like you know
hurt feelings or whatever but I've had like three really big projects which just did not
go forward like they just got to the point where it was just like hey we just had to part
ways because and usually, you know over the years I've lost tens of thousands of pounds on these
kind of things where you I've paid upfront the developers are paid uh every you know the time has
been put into it everything like that and then the client is just for whatever reason not happy and
usually, it's a result of scope creep it's a result of scope creep and not defining the project enough
upfront so you get to the point where you just like a lot of times, we're creating for a fixed
price project we're saying something like okay we think this will be 20 developer days you know
10 designer days uh whatever and then you get to the point where you know the scope changes and
everything like that and you kind of deliver what you said you would deliver but then it was like
no, I think we need to change this we need to change that okay that would cost more and
then you get a bit of like you know oh no but we mentioned this in the other meeting and everything
like that and every so often you get something like that which is why you have to be very very
careful about who you take on as a client project what as a client project you have
to be really specific upfront and you have to make them understand that this is in
the quote and this is not in the quote like you have to be really and even though something was
mentioned in a meeting it wasn't afterward so there's been like a few times where it was just
you know there was a project I had a few years ago where you know we had a developer
working on it and he was really struggling with it so I took it over and I started working on it
and you know the documentation so it was like another company do like the back end API and the
documentation wasn't coming through and they kept changing the back end and I got this thing where
it was like we should have delivered it like like we were like a year late on this project
and the budget was like we were like a year past the budget so it was just me working on it so it
was me spending my evenings just doing this and you get to that point where you just kind of feel
like a slave like I should have stopped like nine months earlier at least you know but just kept
going through it and it was just a slog and we got to the we got to the point where they said oh
we forgot to tell you about this other feature and I'm going but that wasn't part of the
the initial specification I was like yeah no, but we mentioned that that's always been
what we've been thinking about there's no there's nothing written down you know it's
fine if you guys all knew about it but nothing was ever mentioned to me or any of the developers
and that was when we just had to part ways it was kind of like a you know it was just
it was it wasn't pretty it wasn't nasty because we did settle on a figure right but it was kind
of thing where I was devastated because I thought you know even though we're like way way way over
budget and the person taking on that budget this guy right here this idiot right here so
still, way over the budget, I thought okay you know my name is my bond we're going to deliver
this regardless and then you got the point where it's like they were really just not
being fair about any of that kind of stuff and sometimes that just happens and you leave them
thinking you're trying to screw them over and you're thinking like dude I've done everything
everything you've asked of me like you and it's you basically it was kind of it was just
it was nasty and sometimes that kind of stuff happens and I want to tell you guys about this
that sometimes projects do fail so we've had other projects that failed not because
like we delivered but like the app store rejected it and that was kind of like a thing was wasn't us
it wasn't you know it was just sort of that was a bad failure too but unfortunately it
wasn't the one it was one of the ones that I didn't have to absorb the cost of but there's
other ones that I have had to absorb the cost of and I'm telling you about this because a lot of
times you guys will ask me about you know how do I find clients how do I get client work like that
that's one of the big pitfalls that's why you have to make sure that your margin is comfortable and
even with a comfortable margin sometimes you have to make sure that you have that leeway so that
scope creep's going to happen it always happens like and you're fine to say no to in fact
you should say no to it if it's unreasonable but sometimes it's just you know it's fine
but you have to up you know define everything up front we've had projects where
as soon as we started you know as soon as we were like we're specking them out they go
oh yeah we'll we'll figure that part out later it's like no not if we're gonna do fixed price
if we're gonna do fixed price we have to figure it out now otherwise that's gonna be version two or
like another project coming on after it and that's one of the it's like when we do think like so now
when I work with clients I have to really really like them and then one of the things that I'll do
is like if I give a quote uh and first of all a quote is different than a ballpark is
finger in the air I think it'll cost I don't know ten thousand fifteen thousand whatever you're just
throwing a number out there the quote is actually sitting down and mapping everything out a lot of
times I think people think that we're selling a commodity like Eric how much would it cost to
do an accounting system and you're like dude man I don't know like you know like it's I'm not selling
something off the shelf this is like a custom thing so it's more like a construction project
like you have to you know do all the measurements how much is all the materials going to cost how
much does the manpower going to cost all that kind of stuff and it can't change once you start right
because then you have to tear everything down and do it again and because of software a lot of times
people don't understand it they think we're just we just make things out of thin air but
anyway, the reason I wanted to talk about this is because something's been bothering me for a while
like a lot of times when i talk about you know like i said we've had so many successful projects
it's just those few that you know sometimes they're so bad that they ruin your confidence
they kind of put you off like you know you start to you know when somebody says I got this you know
I got this app can you help me out with it you're like oh you know and you go into it it's like it's
like rebounding off a bad relationship you're like I don't know if I'll trust anyone again but
you should because there's so many good people out there there's so many good projects but every so
often you have to know when to call it quits and also when you do your quote and do your contract
you have to have an out clause you have to have that if this doesn't work out and you have
to have the conditions like if scope changes or if requirements change or whatever for whatever
reason you have to give each other notice and you have to decide how you're going to settle that
and in the past, I've had like I said I've lost so much money and so
much time through projects I just I should have killed them off earlier but
you know you want to deliver I know some of you guys out there when we talk about this kind of
stuff in the live streams a lot of you guys have been through this similar kind of thing where
you're just like dude I quoted like I thought i was comfortable with the quote but it's just you
know going on and on and on um you know it's just it happens and it's embarrassing and it's just
it's one of those things that's a big downside of of doing client projects so anyway let me know
if you guys haven't had a similar experience just want to share some of the i don't know some of the
failures I guess with you and I hope you guys uh let me know in the comments what you guys think
thank you for liking and subscribing and that's it for today I'll talk to you again next time