This presentation • Just as much product & business as technical • Examples from our successes... and failures • Tools & motivation! Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
"The hard part isn't the technology — the number one failure of the software industry is building the wrong product" — Amazon engineering manager Jesse Watson Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
Solve a problem for yourself • You have direct access to the customer - you! • You understand the competition • You understand key jobs user hires the product for • You're aware of different activities user is trying to accomplish Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
Before you let it consume all of your time... • Validate your understanding of the problem and interpretation of a solution. Talk to friends or people in the community • If you have a spouse: get their buy-in • Think about the bare-minimum legal & financial stuff: LLC, tax ID, bank account, etc. Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
If you build something that solves a problem for you, worst case you’re no longer frustrated and you've made yourself more efficient Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
Use it as a learning experience • Play with new technologies • Dive into things you haven't done before: • Devops • Marketing • Sales • Product • Customer service • User experience • ... Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
LAUNCHING: PRODUCT Take shortcuts • Use off-the-shelf libraries • Twitter Bootstrap theme • Don't spend hours on a logo • ...or on a name • Even though it's very tempting Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
LAUNCHING: PRODUCT + MARKETING January 2014 • A straightforward API with two endpoints • A dashboard to manage: • API Keys • Billing • Simple usage stats • Hacker News • Google Analytics Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
You can only charge as much as the market can absorb so build as economically as you can Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
LAUNCHING: PRICING • Competition • What can customers pay? • How do they want to pay? • Your costs Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
Price is a signal to users and is just as important as features and low price is not always the best Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
SCALING: PRICING • Corporate customers are way more reliable • More customers, more jobs = more variations of pricing & billing Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
"You should only consider features if they're willing to stand on the porch for three days waiting to be let in" — Getting Real, 37 Signals Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
SCALING: PRODUCT & MARKETING • Add features after they've stood on the porch • Customer support tool, UX, engagement email • SEO • Targeted ads • Listen to customers for their jobs Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
CRASH COURSE: Jobs to Be Done • A person hires a product to get a job done • Functional, emotional, social, cognitive, sensory • Know what to build & how to frame Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
"Customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf. No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program, but it sure turns out they wanted it." — Jeff Bezos Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
When do you go full time? full disclosure: we haven't 1. Revenue/Salary 2. Competitive advantage of your product 3. How much do you love the problem Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
You're plugged into the community • Plenty of free ways to get the word out: StackOverflow, Quora, Twitter, Hacker News, etc • Your friends are your beta testers Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
Anything can be an advantage • Subject matter expertise -- or lack thereof • Full-time job • Having kids Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
In summation • Build something you need • Build it simply • Use your advantages • What to think about before going full time • All of the practical stuff Launching & Scaling Your Side Project | @mjwhansen | @mathiashansen
minicodemonkey
hideki_ojima
alterbo
kajikent
khelene815
nttcom
toshikunifuji
ubiregi_saiyo
tsubasa19940903
okitsu
dahatake
eisukeueta
hacobu
schacon
chriscoyier
smashingmag
jonrohan
jakevdp
jlugia
zenorocha
marktimemedia
rasmusluckow
iamctodd
aarron
phodgson