When it’s time to start a new product build or a UX overhaul, one of the first steps for many organizations is project approval.
How much will it cost? How long will it take?
Sometimes you have to answer these questions before you can spend the first penny.
Teams get a development quote, feel the sticker shock, and start whittling. What nice-to-haves can we omit?
Even organizations that use Agile processes can be fooled into an expectation of certainty. Some development teams feed into it too: maybe they need the project, maybe they like to be the one you can trust to handle the problem.
As a UX team, we know one thing for certain: User input can change plans. And that’s a feature, not a bug.
You might learn that you need to do more than you thought. But often, you’ll learn that you can do less. Avoid the cost of rework by catching issues and opportunities in the design phase.
Once a development team has committed to a particular cost or timeline for a particular scope, user input can become a risk. Some teams will push back on it simply because changes in plans introduce uncertainty.
The lesson: Be thoughtful about how you scope development. A plan that allows you to learn from users and refine your path can help you save significantly in the long run.