Wednesday 25 September 2013

Success!

One of the two products I'm working on had its first deployment to people who we hadn't met and nurtured last weekend. We've spent a bit of time looking at logs and the conclusion is: It worked! OK, there's a couple of bugs to fix, a couple of performance tweaks we could make, someone wants a new feature and we still have a big enough backlog to keep us occupied. But, as a proof of concept, it gives us a lot more confidence; as the start of something that grows through user network effects we can be relieved; and we're starting to get publicity: nice pieces at Stuff and CNet.

Thursday 12 September 2013

Drawing Skills for Computing

Drawing pictures is a vital skill for computing. Pictures of our designs in particular.

Friday 6 September 2013

Towards defining the minimum viable product

I finished work today on a happy note: the "current" milestone task list became empty!
This obviously leaves the task of looking at the backlog and choosing the next step.

Thursday 5 September 2013

Testing for Value

Companies need a way to validate their ideas - and reduce the cost of adapting them when validation says that their value isn't so good in their current state. Accepting that most products and business strategies evolve, this validation needs to be efficient, effective and ongoing. Ideas are business value for companies who rely on innovation. For a start-up with a new product this process is make or break.

I recently read Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup" closely followed by Marty Cagan's "Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love". Both interesting books, and both talking about minimum viable products and measuring response to products in order to guide innovation and direction.