Almost everyday at Spark Solutions we get requests for price quotes for cloning leading websites in almost any space or industry. No specs, no details. Just a two sentence email.
Here’s how my approach evolved:
- Initially I tried to ask for more details, talk about the project to get some more info on the desired functionality.
- Then I went to explain the concept of an MVP to learn what works and then build on it.
- Then I proceeded to explain the cost areas of builing a scalable site with an ecosystem of partners/contributors but more importantly costs of running it – integrations, maintenance, debugging, UX fixes – not mentioning customer service, compliance or marketing costs.
- Then I just started answering with our hourly rate and 3 month period of 2-3 dev team to launch an MVP so we can go from there and offer startup consulting for free in the meantime – in everyone’s interest. I mean… let’s talk about competitive advantage product-wise and point of difference / point of parity marketing-wise.
Perhaps it’s not the site (quote) you need – it’s your (product) strategy and a CTO.
Let’s talk about our CTO-as-a-service offering. We’ll be happy to help. 