The Budget Love Triangle

Starring: Cost, Quality & Time

It is 1999, I am waiting in a doctor’s office and see one of those whimsical wooden signs (you know the ones that always have some sort of life lesson or moral on them) which reads “if you want your appointment to be fast and cheap then the service won’t be good; if you want good service and a cheap bill, then you will have to wait a lot longer than you think; if you want fast and good service, it won’t be cheap!”

I am immediately concerned why bad service is even an option at the doctor’s office. I am also so bored while waiting that I sit there trying to figure out a way to have all three. Maybe if I solve this riddle and present the answer to the doctor I will win free healthcare for life!

Cut to 2019, I am still paying (a lot) for healthcare.

As a business owner and a service provider (like the doctor) I realize that there is serious love triangle happening between Cost, Quality, and Time. Cost is usually always in the center. Since we are a development shop I will use examples of the challenges business owners face when trying to create their own websites, web applications, mobiles applications, software, etc. These challenges though can really apply to any industry or business strategy.

Developing a mobile and web application requires a significant investment to get started and build your base. This investment will be a part of your ongoing operational cost as your business progresses; you will start to add on new features, make changes to existing functionalities, change your mind, release updates based on user feedback, change your mind again, upgrade your infrastructure to accommodate your growing audience, etc.

Usually when a business approaches a development shop they have set a deadline in mind for when they would like to launch their app, have a huge list of features and ideas to create, and….. a missing budget. Believe it or not, even though we are in the golden era of technology most people are unfamiliar with the processes and costs of development, design and maintenance. The pricing structure of development companies also vary significantly due to differences in style, quality, project management, skill level and resources.

Business owners must define their budget, analyze their business strategy to determine how they will get a return on investment (ROI), create a rollout strategy with timelines that align with their market, and determine what quality and product they will be satisfied with and how they plan to continue improving it. But even if you have all of these written down, business (any business) is always in a state of change. Budgets will fluctuate, timelines will be moved up or down as priorities shift, and quality will change to incorporate feedback, new directions, new collaborators and many other factors. There will never be a perfect synergy between the three because they are always changing. This is the Budget Love Triangle.

So how do you run a business in the center of this love triangle? By understanding that there will be different couples at different times.

Sometimes budget and time will be the It couple; budget is constrained and a deadline cannot be changed or loss will occur so quality will have to be adjusted until additional funds are secured. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Adjusting quality doesn’t mean delivering bad products it means you will have to prioritize what you need versus what you want. For example: you are building an e-commerce website for sofas and you think it would be cool to add augmented reality so people can see what the sofa looks like inside their living room. Right now, you just don’t have the budget for it and the longer you wait to make the website live the more sales you know you’re missing. So, although you want augmented reality, right now all you need is pictures of the sofas. Once you get your website started and sales start coming in and your budget expands you might be able to add augmented reality to your online store (but it will probably take time….new couple alert).

Sometimes you will need to deliver something on time and the quality has to be amazing in order to ensure long-term business so your budget and spend ends up having to match that requirement. For example: you have a great idea for a mobile application, investors are ready to throw their money at you but want to see a working prototype in 2 months. If you believe strongly in the potential of your product then you have to be willing to make the monetary investment to produce an impressive prototype by the given deadline. Time and quality are the current couple but once you get those investment funds a new couple might take over.

Everyday in business is like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. There will always be a love triangle (Cost, Quality & Time) and usually one couple prevails….until the next season.