How to Build a Software Product?

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How to Build a Software Product? based on Steve Marmon’s presentation and Ohad Barzilay’s slides {Startup} Programming by Alexey Zagalsky 2016 edition

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How do you decide what to build? Do ideas matter?

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A recipe for successful startups? AirBnb for X (Eatwith) Uber for X (BlackTux, Uber for Uber) Tinder for X (BarkBuddy) Netflix for X

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Product Ideas image taken from http://startupclass.samaltman.com/

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“Making something that people want, but only a medium amount, is a great way to fail and not understand why you’re failing.” image taken from http://startupclass.samaltman.com/

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Step 1: Decide What to Build What (real) problem are you solving?

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User Problem

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Persona ● Jane, 62 ● Lives in Victoria, BC ● Has 3 grandkids in Toronto ● Loves to draw pictures with them ● Wishes she could interact more often

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Principle 1 Know Your Users Needs Goals Use cases Priorities Skills Cognition Time Behaviour patterns Concerns Context of use Errors Experience

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Step 2: Explore Existing Solutions How did others solve the same problem?

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● How is your solution different? ● Gain insights on user intuitions and expectations ○ Users don’t want to invest time to learn the application ○ Take advantage of existing usability knowledge Exploring Existing Solutions

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“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” - Pablo Picasso

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Don’t Work in a Bubble Principle 2

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Step 3: Explore Possible Solutions Did you choose the best platform for your solution?

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Platform Awareness Constraints of a mobile app ● Small screen ● Less precise touch input ● Typing is more difficult ● Short burst of usage

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Platform Awareness Affordances of the platform ● Multitouch screen, Led notifications ● Accelerometers, Magnetometers ● Camera ● Gestures ● GPS

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But Don’t Wander Too Far Your goal is not to have as many features as you can fit. Your goal is to have as few as you can, while still achieving what you want to accomplish.

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Designing Multi-Device Experiences

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Be Minimal Principle 3

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Know The Rules Well Principle 4

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So You Can Break Them Effectively Principle 5

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No content

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Step 4: Sketch Don’t be afraid to use a pencil

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Sketch user interface design and workflow

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Quality Through Quantity Principle 6

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Create Mockups Balsamiq OmniGraffle

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Prototype invision

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Fail Early To Succeed Sooner Principle 7

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Remember That Nothing is Precious Principle 8

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Don’t Be Afraid To Do It All Again Principle 9

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Step 5: Okay, You Can Code Finally Follow an Agile process and use MVC architectural pattern

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Step 6: Create a Proof of Concept End-to-end demo of your primary use case

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Step 7: Beta Test Your Product Conduct a pilot with real users

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● Start by beta testing with your friends ● Pilot with real users ○ Aim for your target audience ○ Early adopters first, and then mainstream users ○ If possible, do more than one pilot ● Don’t take the feedback as is, analyze it Pilot

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Be Careful of Perfectly Executing The Wrong Plan Principle 10

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Step 8: Release

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Test Before You Submit Principle 11

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● Stand on the shoulders of giants ● Talk to users ● Explore many designs ● Iterate based on user feedback Key Takeaways