And telling a customer that what they want a) won't work and b) is not cost-efficient to build can also be a good idea.
You might "lose" a customer, but word will travel that you won't build crap that wastes clients money. Which in turn might bring in more business later on.
Also when building a quick-and-dirty solution, make it LOOK dirty.
A fancy UI with a janky back-end will look like polished software to the customer, keep the user experience in sync with the code progress.
If your backend is WIP, the UI should be only unstyled plain HTML components when demoing it to the customer. If there is no UI, the backend should print all kinds of janky-lookig debug messages that make it clear it's not ready for production.
> Absolutely agree. It can be so difficult to explain to a customer why you've put together a prototype in 6 weeks but then struggle to explain why it'll take another 3 years to complete
You might "lose" a customer, but word will travel that you won't build crap that wastes clients money. Which in turn might bring in more business later on.
Also when building a quick-and-dirty solution, make it LOOK dirty.
A fancy UI with a janky back-end will look like polished software to the customer, keep the user experience in sync with the code progress.
If your backend is WIP, the UI should be only unstyled plain HTML components when demoing it to the customer. If there is no UI, the backend should print all kinds of janky-lookig debug messages that make it clear it's not ready for production.