Roy Rogers saved many a innocent soul from villians, robbers and bad guys of the wild west. That was really nice of him. You could always count on him to show up at the right time and save the day. Roy saves the day.
I come from experience with a long line of businesses, some Internet based, some in the "real" world. And I have to tell you, Roy saves the day there too. Not Roy, but ROI. Return on Investment. I'm sometimes flabbergasted on the attitude, prevalent in the online world, that spending capital is a "sunk" cost. "I need to spend $20,000 on a web app, so I can show off our new web designer's skills." "We need to get a video up." "Our competition has a new website, so we do to."
Not a good reason. If this were a truck or piece of heavy equipment, or a consultant, you can be sure that the math would be done such that those dollars spent would come back more than once.
Why does this not apply to web apps? Well, it does. Everytime. In the olden days (after Roy Rogers, like in 1999-2000), the steps for ROI were this:
Step 1. Bright online idea
Step 2. ????
Step 3. Profit
Lots of companies got stuck on Step 2. Some skipped to step 3 and made millions. But there wasn't much business value there, and it didn't last.
Call us old fashioned, but I say demand to make your money back on your web projects. Preferably sooner rather than later. Have function and marketing trump design. Study product positioning on an ecommerce site. Make landing pages. Maximize social media exposure and have it tightly integrated with your website.
Don't listen to the designers, they don't know ROI. Don't listen to the coders, they don't know ROI. You know ROI. Demand the money back in a year or less. Work with professionals that understand the whole project, 360 degrees.
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