
Top Mistakes That Developers Make When Building a Web App (And How to Prevent Them)
About this episode
Every developer has war stories about a project that went sideways—too many abstractions, tests that didn’t catch what mattered, or a late-night deploy with no rollback plan. In this episode, Matt and Mike dig into the seven biggest mistakes teams make when building web apps and how to avoid them. From over- and under-engineering, leaving hard problems until the last minute, and wasting time in low-impact areas, to skipping security basics, ignoring observability, and neglecting CI/CD, we cover the traps that derail projects. Along the way, we share practical strategies—like building for 10× growth (not 100×), using tracer-bullet proofs of concept, scoping by impact, and shipping behind feature flags. Whether you’re launching your first SaaS or scaling an enterprise app, these lessons will help you build faster, safer, and smarter.
Powered by CodeRabbit - AI Code Reviews: https://coderabbit.link/htmlallthethings
Use our Scrimba affiliate link (https://scrimba.com/?via=htmlallthethings) for a 20% discount!! Full details in show notes.
Get every episode summarized
Each time HTML All The Things - Web Development, Web Design, Small Business publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from HTML All The Things - Web Development, Web Design, Small Business

Web News: Why AI Phones Might Fail Like BlackBerry
HTML All The Things - Web Development, Web Design, Small Business

What’s Happening To Me? The Negative Side Effects of AI
HTML All The Things - Web Development, Web Design, Small Business

Web News: Is IBM Winning the AI Race? A Bet on Entry-Level Developers
HTML All The Things - Web Development, Web Design, Small Business

Web Apps vs Mobile Apps: Choosing the Right Path in 2026
HTML All The Things - Web Development, Web Design, Small Business