Ask around and the timelines you are quoted for the same brief will not overlap. Mine usually land between one and four weeks, against the three to six months a studio would quote. People reasonably assume that means corners are being cut somewhere, so it is worth explaining where the difference actually comes from.
Where the weeks go
In a team build, a great deal of the calendar is not work. It is the gap between work: one person waiting for another to finish before they can start, a round of feedback held over until the next scheduled call, and a brief that has to be passed on second hand rather than heard from you directly.
Nothing is waiting on anybody else, because there is nobody else.
What that does not buy you
It does not buy you more hours in the day. If your project genuinely needs four people, it needs four people, and I will say so rather than take it on and be late. One person is faster right up to the point where the work stops fitting in one person, and being honest about that line is part of the job.
- Scope agreed before anything starts, so week one is building
- Something clickable inside the first week, not a design in week four
- Feedback comes straight to me rather than waiting for the next scheduled call
Written by Denney, a freelance developer based between Richmond and Kingston. If any of this applies to something you are planning, available for new projects.
