What Your Roadmap Is Missing: The Three Hidden Costs of In-House Development

Choosing to manage the entire engineering process in-house can present unexpected costs related to competitive advantage, user experience, and technical debt. Delays in launching apps due to building in-app functionalities from scratch can reduce competitive edge, especially when competitors use APIs or SDKs to enhance their development speed and app performance. Additionally, in-house development may lead to a limited user experience if time and resources restrict the inclusion of desired features, potentially pushing users towards competitors' apps. Furthermore, maintaining and updating an app post-launch can divert resources from core competencies, whereas third-party vendors offer continuous improvement and support for integrated components. Companies are encouraged to weigh the pros and cons of building versus buying app components to optimize their product development strategy.