Most leading Bubble.io agencies are setting you up to fail. Here’s what to do instead.

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I’ve done discovery calls with hundreds of people in the no-code product-building world, including a good number of former clients of “leading” agencies.

While I have respect for the processes and resources they’ve created, there is one core problem with their service.

It’s a dangerous situation that can turn relationships and whole projects toxic.

It’s the elephant in the room…

It’s nothing to do with technology and everything to do with psychology.

Unrealistic expectations.

Let me make my case with three conversations.

Conversation 1: Potential Client

Me: What do you want to do?

Client: Build some sort of web platform “ABCDE”

Me: When do you want it done?

Client: [Yesterday | 2 weeks time| 4 weeks time]

Me: What’s your budget?

Client: [Looks uncomfortable and declines to answer | $5,000 | $10,000]

Me: When do you want to start?

Client: [Last week | next week | when someone says yes to my proposed timeline]

At this point, I feel it is my responsibility to point out that they are not being realistic.

Or at least, if they want it done to the standard that they expect, it will not be done in this timeline or budget, even utilizing tools like Bubble.

You can hire a solo developer on these kinds of budgets who you manage directly, and you become the product designer, the product manager, the QA engineer, as well as the client. But you don’t get the benefits of a team who know how to do these things. It’s unrealistic to expect a team to achieve this.

Why am I so direct?

If I’m not, there will come a point in the project where both the client and I get really unhappy.

Yep, I’m made that mistake before. The mistake of being too nice and trying to please the client.

I’m not keen to repeat it. For both the client’s sake and mine.

Conversation 2: Current client of leading Bubble agency

Client: We’re looking to move away from [leading bubble agency] who built our app and we’re considering our options.

Me: Why?

Client: They were too slow to scope, too fast in development, and too slow to QA.

Me: Okaaay…

Client: They weren’t bad, but they weren’t great either.

The selling point of Bubble.io is the ease and speed of development.

This doesn’t fix the problems of (1) what to build, (2) doing it to the standard that people expect, and (3) doing it within a smooth, well-managed process.

Yep, you can build a prototype or proof of concept in a week or two of the development team’s efforts. Great.

But will the product be well-designed? User-centric? Ready for production?

Very very unlikely.

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In our experience, building custom web applications on Bubble (with mid to high complexity) can take months. Wrap product management, UXUI design, and QA around this and you can easily land on a 3–6 month timeline.

Conversation 3: Current developer of same leading Bubble agency

Me: How long are the projects you usually work on

Dev: They start us on 1-week projects. Now I usually do 2-week ones.

Me: What’s the longest project you’ve worked on?

Dev: About 3 weeks.

Me: Have you ever supported an app in production?

Dev: What’s that?

Me: It’s when you go live, and you have real users, and you have to make changes without breaking things.

Dev: Ahh…no.

Pause. Reflective face.

Dev: Maybe working in your agency isn’t for me. It sounds high stress.

It’s all starting to make sense. The model of some agencies is to centrally scope projects, farm out greenfields dev phases (not building on top of anything existing) to an army of elite contractors, test the product in the lab, then get the heck out of there.

Some agencies have built a machine that churns out MVPs but doesn’t serve the needs of the clients.

They pay top rates to their contractors but only engage them for short bursts when there is work. The contractors know that if they work faster, they can earn even high rates for these short engagements.

And working with team members that have done less than 6–12 months of full-time work within our team and methodology won’t yield the best results either.

Oh, you want to do some more work? Let’s re-enter a slow burn scoping cycle and repeat. Yep, the Bubble Dev was fast, but the rest of the process was … well, realistic if not slow.

The client wants a luxury sports car. Fast, attractive, and functional. And they got a second-hand, entry-level hatchback with an empty fuel tank.

Far different from what they pictured in their minds.

Analysis

In the ecosystem, unrealistic clients are fed by dev agencies who tell them: “Yes we can do this”.

But the experience of clients ranges from poor to ok at best.

What to do instead

If you have an idea for a web platform, Bubble is a great choice. You can learn it yourself or work with a good agency to deliver it. Just follow these steps:

1. Work with teams that estimate scope carefully and identify risk. Look for someone who understands your scope, and is not falsely optimistic. Ask them how many of their projects run on time and if their clients are happy with the results. Look for an honest answer.
2. Be realistic about timeframes — if it takes 2 | 4 | 6 weeks, it might work ok but it won’t be polished. If you really needed it yesterday, go back in time and start 3–4 months ago to allow proper time for testing and iterations.
3. Be realistic about budgets. Cheaper is not better. Cheaper can become more expensive if compromises are made in planning and execution. If you cut out UXUI design or Product Management, changes on the fly quickly become more expensive.
4. **Reduce scope —**Get in the habit of reducing your scope significantly. So that you can achieve the standard you expect. Ask your PM/Dev to guide you about this.
5. Build a long-term relationship — Choose someone you can work with long-term. Building an app is NEVER a one-off thing. Once you have deployed Phase 1 (aka the green field, blue sky, dreamy world of product building in a lab environment) — Phase 2 is going to be more expensive, time-consuming, and feel harder.

Maybe it’s not for you, or not now

If you don’t have a healthy budget to invest (you need to see yourself as the investor here), ask yourself “Should I really be building a web application?”

Instead, validate your idea with myriad off-the-shelf (OTS) software and/or create a hybrid product-service offering that is revenue-generating, then pivot to a product.

Be creative here.

And if you are building a tech-first product, you can’t do a service or use OTS software…. learn Bubble and DIY!

This is the reason why Bubble exists in the first place!

Conclusion

The quickest way to achieve project failure is to set unrealistic expectations.

About Momentum

We are a bespoke digital product-building agency working with clients globally. If you’re looking for a UXUI-driven, team-based approach utilizing Bubble to build web platforms… you probably need to speak to us!

More at momentumgroup.tech.

Looking to learn and build a career in Bubble? Join our for a 8-week intensive Bubble Bootcamp at Momentum Academy