The "We'll Fix It Later" Trap

Picture this: You're building a house, and the contractor says, "Hey, let's skip the foundation for now and just build the walls. We can always come back and add the foundation later!" Sounds crazy, right? But this is exactly what happens in the tech world all the time.

When building software, there's this magical phrase that developers and business owners love to say: "We'll fix it later." It sounds so reasonable! You want to get your product out fast, so you take shortcuts. You skip the boring stuff like automated testing and proper documentation. You build features quickly without thinking about how they'll work when you have 10,000 users instead of 10.

The problem? Later almost never comes.

Why "Later" Never Arrives

Here's what really happens: You launch your product with all these shortcuts (called technical debt in tech speak). Your product works... sort of. But then new problems pop up every day. Your team spends all their time putting out fires instead of building cool new features.

It's like having a leaky roof. You keep putting buckets under the drips instead of actually fixing the roof. Before you know it, your house is full of buckets, and you're still getting wet!

The Real Cost of Shortcuts

Let me tell you about a startup that hired a team to build their product. This product had lots of complex math calculations that changed based on different inputs - think about 500 different ways the math could work! The team said they'd follow Agile methods, but they skipped writing tests for all those calculations.

Every time they added something new, other parts of the math broke. The testing team had to check everything by hand every single time before launching. Then more bugs would pop up, and the developers had to drop everything to fix them. This company spent at least $140,000 on endless bug fixes instead of building new features their customers actually wanted.

What Happens When You Take Shortcuts

When you don't do things right the first time, here's what you can expect:

Your product breaks constantly. Without proper testing, every small change can cause big problems. Your users get frustrated and leave.

Everything takes forever. Adding new features becomes like performing surgery on a house of cards. One wrong move and everything falls down.

Your team gets burned out. Nobody wants to spend their days fixing the same problems over and over. Good developers will leave for companies that do things right.

You can't grow. When your foundation is shaky, you can't build anything bigger on top of it. You'll hit a wall where adding more users just breaks everything.

The Right Way to Think About It

Instead of "we'll fix it later," try thinking "if we're not willing to build it right, why are we building it at all?"

This doesn't mean you need to build a perfect system from day one. It means you should build a simple system that works really well, rather than a complex system held together with digital duct tape.

Think of it like cooking. You can make a simple, delicious meal with fresh ingredients, or you can try to make something fancy with expired food. The simple meal will always taste better.

How to Avoid the Trap

Start with automated testing. Yes, it takes extra time upfront, but it saves you tons of time later when you're not constantly fixing bugs.

Write things down. Document how your system works so future developers (including yourself six months from now) can understand it.

Plan for growth. Think about what happens when you have 100 times more users. You don't need to build for that scale yet, but you should design in a way that won't completely break.

Focus on your core problem. Don't get distracted by fancy features until your main product works perfectly.

Remember, it's better to build fewer features with purpose than to scatter your efforts across a dozen half-baked ideas. Take the time to research what your users really need, then build those features properly the first time.

Coming Next Week:

What's an MVP and Why Do You Need One? - Defining the minimum features your product actually needs to launch.

At Keiboarder, we help startups to Fortune 500 companies avoid costly software development mistakes with expert fractional CTO leadership, a clear roadmap, and a proven process to build and scale market-ready products. Get in touch with us, and let's build awesome things together! 🚀 Contact us