Most IT products start out the same way –I want to be like Uber, Deliveryclub, To Good to Go, etc. And they end up the same way – with disappointment, endless revisions, and wasted budgets.
Foodclick could have had a similar story. Its founder wanted to create a system that would simplify interaction between guests and staff. To do this, he turned to the dev.family team. This is how a product was born that went through many iterations, mistakes, and solutions, becoming a real working tool for the catering industry in Belarus.
Now we are approached by entrepreneurs from Uzbekistan and Georgia who want to create "the same Foodclick" in their countries. That is why we asked Eugene to share his experience so that those who are just starting to work on their product can save time and money.
If you are interested in what the project is actually about, read our detailed case study . But in general, the lessons work even without context.
Foodclick: mobile app for reservations, pre-orders and cashless payments in restaurants
Lesson 1. Don't start without clear technical specifications and a general understanding of the product
It was our first experience working with an IT company. We simply told the developers what we wanted and got to work. We didn't have detailed technical specifications – just a general idea of the goal.
When Foodclick was just starting out, Evgeny and his team viewed development as a linear process: they came up with an idea, passed it on to the developers, and received the product. But that's not how it works in IT. Without scenarios, roles, and a description of the logic, everything quickly turns into a game of broken telephone, with everyone understanding the task in their own way.
As a result, the first versions of Foodclick turned out differently than the team had imagined – not because of mistakes, but because of a lack of common language between the restaurateur and the developers.
That's why we're now starting development with the Discovery phase – it's needed precisely to describe the project from A to Z and agree on the vision with the client. To eliminate technical risks. To lay the groundwork for an architecture that will be easy to scale, even if we release an MVP first.
This experience became the first important lesson: for a product to work, all participants must have the same understanding of why it is needed and how it will be used.
Hidden Costs of Skipping Discovery Phase
Even large companies go through this. For example, when Starbucks launched its mobile app in 2015, the team also faced a gap between business and IT. Marketing saw the service as a loyalty channel, while developers were building a payment platform. After a month of chaos, Starbucks formed cross-functional product teams where business and IT work together to formulate goals. Today, the Starbucks Rewards program they created is considered the benchmark for digital experience in retail.
Lesson 2. A closed system slows down growth
We initially decided that we would onboard establishments ourselves. As a result, in order to connect a restaurant, in addition to meeting with us in person, the manager had to go through a whole quest: questionnaires, bank, internet acquiring...
It seemed that personal involvement would help convey the value and avoid mistakes. In reality, the closed system became the main barrier to growth.
So Foodclick faced a paradox: a product created to simplify the lives of restaurants required too much manual involvement itself. This slowed down implementation and scaling.
Today, the team is revising its approach, seeking a balance between convenience and legal requirements. This is because some procedures in Belarus still require identity verification and bank involvement.
Our goal is not to remove people from the process, but to make it understandable, short, and manageable.
One option is to follow the example of Ukrainian retail service provider Poster POS. They offer to create an account online and get a 15-day free trial period with a quick tour of the features, as well as demo access to the POS application. After that, you can send detailed onboarding instructions or connect a manager at this stage to lower the entry threshold.
Custom POS System Development
Wanna get valuable data to make efficient desicions?
Lesson 3. Simplicity always wins over technology
We realized that customers in restaurants don't want to download anything. So we did everything through QR codes.
At one stage of Foodclick's development, the team realized a simple but crucial truth: the more technological a solution seems in words, the fewer people actually use it.
Initially, the project was conceived as a full-fledged mobile application that guests had to install in order to call a waiter, pay tips, leave a review, or reserve a table.
How to build a restaurant reservation app as an aggregator
In practice, this did not work. People did not want to spend time downloading, especially while in a restaurant. Even if the interface was user-friendly, the very fact of installation became a barrier.
We decided to simplify everything and made the functionality accessible via QR codes placed on the tables in the restaurant.
This decision was a turning point. Eliminating the need to download the app reduced the guest's journey to a single step and dramatically increased engagement. The QR code became the entry point not only for feedback, but also for reservations, calling a waiter, and rating the service.
Why do your restaurant need QR Code in 2025
Reducing the technological complexity made the product more accessible to people. As it turned out, this was exactly what the market needed. Restaurants began to notice that guests were leaving reviews more often, getting staff attention faster, and becoming less annoyed by waiting times.
McDonald's once experienced a similar shift: after unsuccessful attempts to promote its cumbersome pre-order app, the company focused on instant "Order & Pay" web features that did not require installation. This allowed it to increase the share of online orders by more than 30% in six months.
Lesson 4. Technology does not function without people
The waiters said they felt like ‘dogs on a leash’. Every call through the app sends a push notification to their personal device, and they have to run.
When Foodclick launched, everything looked convenient from the guests' point of view – instant waiter calls, the ability to give feedback right then and there, leave a tip if you don't have cash. But for the staff, it was really stressful.
After a while, waiters began complaining to managers that they felt under constant surveillance. Some openly ignored calls through the app. Others feared that their work would be evaluated solely on the number of calls.
A similar story happened at Starbucks when the company introduced mobile ordering. Baristas initially perceived this as a threat – the pace of work increased, and "live communication" with customers decreased. But after training and redistribution of roles, the program came to be perceived as a tool for convenience rather than control.
Cashless Tipping Software
Looking to improve operational efficiency of your employees?
Lesson 5. Feedback saves your reputation
Feedback through the app allowed us to resolve conflicts before they reached public platforms.
Before Foodclick came along, restaurants often faced a situation where a guest would remain silent in the dining room but write an angry review as soon as they left – on Google or Yandex Maps. The manager would find out about it too late, when the negative review had already been seen by the entire internet.
Foodclick changed this scenario. After paying or calling the waiter, guests could leave a review directly in the system, and the message was immediately sent to the manager. This allowed them to respond immediately, rather than having to "sort things out" a day later.
How do users reviews increase the retention and boost sales
Domino's Pizza uses a similar approach, only with the use of AI. Their "AnyWare Feedback" system allows guests to leave feedback immediately after ordering on any convenient platform. AI analyzes all comments that appear and sends negative ones directly to the branch manager. The company tracks complaints in real time and responds to them immediately to prevent a scandal from erupting online.
We developed a similar solution for Malpa Games – a ticket system that uses artificial intelligence to collect all feedback on stores, filter it, and process it depending on its "severity."
Malpa Games. Customer feedback management software for a mobile games publisher
Lesson 6. Chaos does not scale: why a startup needs documentation
At the start, Foodclick developed like most young products: ideas quickly turned into features, tasks were solved "here and now," and knowledge about the system lived in the minds of the developers. This pace helped bring the project to market quickly, but later it became clear that without an internal structure, it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and scale the product.
When some of the partner services were updated, the team had to revert to the old code to restore compatibility. Without a description of the architecture and solutions, this took more time and resources than planned.
In 2023, the Slack team completely rebuilt the desktop client to reduce technical debt and lay the foundation for future updates. One of the key steps was to formalize the description of the architecture and internal modules, which made it possible to speed up releases and stabilize the product.
Lesson 7. Without finances, a product cannot grow, but without experience, it cannot survive
When Foodclick entered the market, the team already understood how to make the product relevant to the market. But the issue was not the idea, but the resources. Development, integration, support, and updates required stable funding, which the restaurateur-founder did not have.
Despite the limitations, the project did not stop. Foodclick continues to operate, and its team has accumulated experience that is now more important than investment: an understanding of the restaurant market, the challenges faced by managers, and the demands of guests.
We have already communicated with many restaurants and received feedback: where it takes too long, where it is inconvenient, where it needs to be simplified. Now we understand exactly what works and what doesn't.
This experience has already attracted interest from colleagues in other countries – Georgia and Uzbekistan have sent requests to purchase the code for the current product or develop a similar one.
The Calendly team followed a similar path. Initially, the product was developed mainly with the founder's personal funds, and growth only became possible after focusing on a narrow scenario and proving its value to users. Only then did they attract investment – to scale what was already working.
Let's reinforce what we've learned
Foodclick became an example of how offline experience is transformed into a digital product.Through trial and error, the team built a system that solves real problems for restaurants – it helps them get feedback, speeds up service, and makes their business more transparent.
For dev.family, this case study confirms that sustainable products are not born from ideal technical specifications, but from close interaction between business and development.
If you run a restaurant and are thinking about your own service, don't start with code, but with understanding what pain points you want to solve. Formulate one scenario that will really improve the experience for guests or staff. And dev.family will help turn that scenario into a working product, just as it once did with Foodclick.
