Why most dev teams are building the wrong thing

The most expensive software mistake isn't a bug in production. It's building the wrong thing.

I've seen it happen in teams of every size. A client comes in with a clear idea — or at least, they think it's clear. The dev team builds exactly what was asked for. And then, three months and $40,000 later, everyone looks at what's been built and realises it doesn't solve the actual problem.

The gap nobody talks about

There's a gap that exists in almost every software project between what a client says they want and what they actually need. These are rarely the same thing.

Clients describe symptoms, not root causes. They ask for features that address surface-level frustrations without understanding the underlying workflow. And dev teams — focused on delivery — build what they're asked for rather than questioning whether it's the right thing to build.

Nobody is being malicious. The client genuinely believes they know what they need. The dev team genuinely believes they're delivering value. But without someone in the room asking hard questions up front, the gap widens quietly until it becomes a crisis.

What good requirements actually look like

A good requirements document doesn't just describe what should be built. It captures:

• The problem being solved (not just the feature being requested)
• Who is affected and how they currently work around it
• What success looks like — measurably
• What's explicitly out of scope

When you have those four things written down and agreed on before a line of code is written, teams don't build the wrong thing. They can't — the definition of "right" is too clear.

The fix is surprisingly simple

It's not a new methodology or a new tool. It's just a conversation — the right conversation, at the right time, with someone who knows what questions to ask.

That's the work I do.