Let’s be honest, if you’ve ever worked at a startup, you’ve heard it:
“Can we ship this faster?”
“Let’s just build a quick MVP for now…”
“It’s just a small feature, right?”
From the founder’s perspective, it’s all about momentum. From the developer’s side? It’s usually panic, duct tape, and a quiet prayer that no one notices the 600-line function you just pushed to production.
So let’s talk about what “developer speed” really means and where it goes wrong.
1. Speed without direction = chaos
Writing code quickly is not the same as building something useful. When you’re told to “move fast” but the specs keep changing or there’s no clear vision, it’s like running full speed in a pitch-black room.
You’ll move, but you'll probably break your nose (and your codebase) in the process.
2. Thinking short-term creates long-term pain
“Yes, we can hardcode it and push it today... but you’ll pay for it in 2 weeks.” This is the tech debt trap. Rushing features leads to bugs, untested logic, and awkward workarounds that slow everything else down.
What felt “fast” today becomes the bottleneck tomorrow.
3. Design and UX suffer when devs are rushed
Fast code often means zero time for polish. You get clunky interfaces, weird bugs, and confusing flows that drive users away. Then someone says, “Why aren’t users converting?” Spoiler: because no one thought about them.
4. Rewrites are way more expensive than getting it right
Speed kills, especially when it means cutting corners that need to be rebuilt later. I’ve seen startups burn weeks (and thousands of dollars) redoing features they could’ve built right the first time with just one more day of planning.
5. “It’s just code” is a dangerous mindset
Founders sometimes treat engineering like it’s a vending machine: punch in the request, get the feature. But software isn't instant noodles, it takes thought, collaboration, and time to do well. Especially if you want to scale later.
👋 Final Thought
If you're a founder reading this: trust your devs when they ask for time. They’re not trying to slow you down, they’re trying to make sure you don’t break everything you just built.
And if you’re a dev stuck in the “just ship it” cycle: speak up. Speed means nothing if the product isn’t stable, usable, or scalable.
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