SOS Headless: Who will help you make the switch?

Are developers a fan of headless?

In the end, whether you go headless or not, only one thing matters: deliver the best possible user experience to customers. To do that, you’ll need motivated developers with the right tools at their disposal to do so. Motivated and (technically) unconstrained developers help a lot in obtaining that goal. Like the CEO of Shopify once said: “Coding should be fun”.

A developer should always default to trying to resolve an issue making use of the most scalable robust and sustainable solutions at hand. That’s how progress is being made. But when the right tools are used in the right circumstances… Ah, that’s when the real magic happens!

There’s a lot that comes into play to know what the right solution is: budget, number of team members, talent distribution within your team, timeline, and short and long term goals are important factors in deciding how you should go forward.

Of course, developers like to have complete freedom - who doesn’t? But that’s not always in the best interest of the client they’re working for. The complexity of a system increases dramatically with every integration that is added. In my podcast with CEO and founder of Odoo Fabien Pinckaers we discuss that “complexity” goes up with the square of the number of integrations. Which could lead to a solution that is hard to master.

For me, that’s the difference between a good project and a great project: not only delivering a solution, but one that fits the real needs of the client and really takes into account what resources - in the broad meaning of the word - the client has.

Are agencies up for the switch?

I view agencies as aggregators. Aggregators of knowledge, talent, tech stacks and strategy. They should function as a filter, but at the same time should work in such a way that they still maximise freedom and flexibility.

As an input, they get:
- Raw creativity
- Premature technical, marketing and other trends
- Dying technical, marketing and other trends
- Platform risk
- Super technical input
- Business and economic input
- Creative input
- Hasty clients, clients with enormous budgets, clients with less budgets
- Clients who are technical and clients who are not technical at all
And as an output, the successful ones create:
- Clear vision
- Guidance for ‘all’ types of clients
- Scalable, sustainable and effective solutions

Let me tell you: agencies are an interesting place to be in, and exactly the reason why we choose this business. We have the talent and expertise to funnel those inputs into something useful that makes sense.

My point is that agencies should be looking into what makes the most sense for clients in the long run and pick the technologies that really make sense for a specific merchant. This also means agencies should understand what it’s good at, and most certainly: what it’s not good at.
It goes without saying that this is something that one single profile, such as a developer, marketeer, creative or financial person, simply can’t do. There’s too much knowledge and different perspectives needed to make the right decision.

Take your pick

Whether you’re choosing a developer or an agency, just make sure they have your best interests at heart. Stay clear of people who try to convince you with the latest trends and whose pitches are just a cascade of buzzwords.

Compare it to going to a car dealership: the sales guy might let you dream of that flaming Ferrari. But that car won’t be any good if you have a family of five. And sure, it’s nice to envision yourself cruising down the road with that Ferrari - but reality will surely kick in hard when you try to fit in that baby stroller. Maybe you should have stuck to your good old Golfwagen Hatchback.

It’s the same with your e-commerce: headless might be the right choice for you. But choosing to go headless because ‘it’s the future’, simply won’t cut it.
But how would you know if it’s time for you to make the jump? In the last part of this series, I will help you make the right decision for your commerce!
Or, you know, you could always book a call with me and my team, and we’ll tell you right away.