“Something intrinsically worthwhile”
“In time, success will come. And if it doesn’t, at least you’ll have spent your time doing something intrinsically worthwhile.”
-Eric Ries
If your project/idea/business flops, was your time wasted? Did it help anybody? Did you learn something new? That seems like a pretty good measuring stick for work worth doing.
Running a software biz
I just found this great blog by Eric Sink. You’ll love it if you’re an indie developer trying to live the dream. BTW he calls us ISV’s (small independent software vendor).
“The ‘No Sales Guy’ Approach… Listen to your customers and give them what they want. Keep your customers happy (they’ll tell all their friends how great you are).”
Update: I probably should have just linked to his index of articles titled Marketing for Geeks.
Start with a Problem, Not an Idea
“Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve.”
- Margin Zwilling
That all-important concern of turning a profit
“I think venture capital money is not only unneeded for most Web startups, but is actually harmful, because it removes you from that all-important concern of turning a profit.”
Jury Duty
This morning I went to jury duty. I filled out a survey and sat in a room for 5 hours. I mostly worked on my laptop.
I am still working on tweaking the application. Although there are other features I want to add, getting the “welcoming” of our first-time users right is my top priority. I originally built HighNoon for my friend’s custom t-shirt business, so we weren’t concerned about other people using it. But now I won’t be there to sit over the shoulder and help every new user get started.
Thinking about welcoming your users reminds me of Eames’s guest/host theory. It is our responsibility as product makers to host our users and make them feel welcome.
Charles and Ray argued that the guest/host relationship existed everywhere: in the tent of a nomadic herdsman, in the layout of a railroad station, in the way you are greeted by the circus. It also exists in design: how you make a chair or begin a film, and in all the subtle equations and gestures of welcoming in every day human existence. …it was the responsibility of the host to make sure the guest had as rich an experience as possible.
The Plan
I’ve got a rough plan for the first month of my experiment.
Week 1
Focus on polishing the app. There are some basic features I’ve wanted to implement but just haven’t had the time. (Like billing our customers, yowzah!)
Week 2, 3 & 4
All about visiting printers. I want to visit 10 screen printers a week.
Week 5
Evaluate what just happened. I will have visited 30 printers and started some online marketing. How did it go?
I intentionally didn’t set any sales goals, because I really have no idea what I’m doing. I think that visiting potential customers and really understanding their day-to-day will be great for the product, and spread the news that our product exists.
New project: The All-time Startup Experiement
For the past couple years I’ve been working as a web developer at a variety of startup companies, meanwhile I’ve been toiling away my own project part-time; a web application for screen printers. I’ve finally decided that in order for my business to go anywhere, it will require my full attention. So I’ve quit my job and started the experiment.
Inspiration:
Redesign Jail | Dream Project
I want to design the experience of a citizen being arrested and held in jail.
I will update as ideas and research flows.
