Dev shops don’t care if your product works.
They care if it’s scoped.
That’s the model.
You brief them.
They build.
You pay.
Repeat.
You think you’re building a product.
They think they’re fulfilling a backlog.
But the game’s rigged.
The more you ask for, the more hours they log.
The more vague your idea, the longer it takes.
They don’t kill features. They pad timelines.
You’re optimising for validation.
They’re optimising for invoices.
The MVP should be sharp.
It should create friction.
It should force insight.
Dev shops won’t ask what matters.
They’ll just ask for the next Figma screen.
That’s how you end up with six tabs, twenty endpoints, and zero usage.
If your dev team bills by the hour, the incentive is wrong.
You’re not building a product—you’re sponsoring one.
Don’t pay for progress.
Pay for proof.