Dennis Yu

Why your web project is failing

Everyone is building stuff these days on the web.  Grab some design templates, and an open-source CMS, and pay some freelancers from a foreign country $500 to bring it together. You seemingly mitigate risk by looking at their feedback ratio, client reference list, or even sample code (if you are technical enough).

But your project fails for some simple reasons:

No daily checkpoints: You might have an 8-week schedule, and let’s just assume your estimates are reasonable for now. The programmer tells you that everything is fine and you’ll have something to see soon. But soon doesn’t seem to happen and now it’s one week before the deadline. You’ve burned most of the clock and can only pray what’s there reflect your requirements.

Solution- daily checkpoints. They must show your progress, not hide beyond the tomorrow that never comes or that they are working on the backend, doing invisible stuff that is necessary, but which you won’t understand. Force daily releases.

Some people adopt agile, or scrum-based methods, which are particular versions of the iterative approach I’m describing here. The key is to review progress regularly versus allowing things to drift way off track. Easily said, but you might be surprised how hard it is to get programmers to commit and show the project. Don’t be fooled by the “almost done” or “I’ll have it tomorrow” ploy.

No prototype: if your requirements are not rock-solid and have no risk of ever-changing (only possible in military projects or large construction), you must and will build a prototype. The reason I say will is that whether you call it a prototype or not, you will probably throw away the first version of what you do. So you might as well accept that and be as efficient as possible. Allocate about 20% of your budget for the prototype and perhaps 40% of the time.


Multiple stakeholders: have one project decision-maker if you can. Sure, many people can provide input on what to build. But only one person can sign off. It’s hard enough coordinating between different pigs at the trough. If your project serves multiple users or departments, find one person among them who is trusted and is a neutral party. You won’t have time to referee. Bad budgeting/planning: this is the #1 reason projects don’t meet their deadlines. You simply set too low a budget or do not have enough time. Likewise, when you hear that someone’s project came in x% under budget or ahead of schedule, overestimation is usually the culprit.

Overestimation is also called sandbagging, to use a derogative term. In a more positive light, you should take your engineer’s estimate and multiply it by three. Not 30%, but a factor of three. The best engineers are often the worst at estimating. So don’t mistake a truly incompetent engineer for one who just is terrible at estimating time. Not the same thing as time management, which is another story,

Scope creep: this is probably the #1 project killer. The camel is carrying so many straws that its back is broken. Some project leads “fix” this by rigidly enforcing no changes. But that’s like forcing an airplane to land in dangerous weather, just because the original plan said so. The answer is to allow adjustment, but under the rule that anything added means we have to subtract at least twice as many other things. That’s also called prioritization.

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.
I'm a member of Blitzmetrics Academy and a friend of Dennis to boot. Not only is Dennis highly intelligent and full of great and creative ideas, he's also incredibly generous with both his knowledge and his time. Success couldn't come to a better guy. Thank you for all that you do for the world, Dennis! 🙏

Michael Pacheco

Marketer

Thanks 🙏 for being shining light in this industry. Love what your building for works overseas too network for jobs so innovative. Dennis helped me navigate having bad experiences with marketing agencies and doing dollar a day marketing which has helped my personal brand tremendously. Highly recommend.

Eric Skeldon

Founder at Kingdom Broker

Working with Dennis has been a delightful experience. After meeting him in 2015 I got to collaborate with him on countless occasions. His understanding for state-of-the-art marketing, his implementation, and his leadership put him into the top 0.01% of marketers and mentors.

Jan Koch

Ihr kompetenter Partner für innovative KI-Strategien.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dennis for my podcast in 2021 and since then we have maintained a friendship that grows with each interaction. I have seen Dennis' devotion to his friends and clients firsthand, and our conversations often result in us talking about how we can provide more value to the people around us. He is someone whom I can ask questions on a technical level, and look to on a personal level. If you have any hesitancy about hiring him, get over yourself and do it!

Isaac Mashman

Help scaling personal brands.

Geez, where do I start recommending Dennis? First, he is an absolutely brilliant marketer who understands where marketing is today and where it's going tomorrow. He also has an incredible passion for the International Worker community. The lessons he has taught me from his almost 20 years of experience hiring International Workers have been immense. Most importantly though. Dennis Yu is someone who wants the absolute best for you and is willing to tell you the truth. Dennis sat with me at a point in my business where I was floundering but did not want to admit it. He asked some very straight forward questions to get me to admit my issues, highlighted the issues, and then helped me create a roadmap to success.

Atiba de Souza

International Keynote Speaker | Video Content Superman | Superconnector |

Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will notr regret Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will not regret

Nixon Lee

The PR Whisperer

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