Principles learned in tech startups and applied to an apparel business
In this article, I want to share some principles from the tech industry that we've applied at DULO—an apparel business where we make time-saving, super comfortable dress shirts. Reflecting on my experience as a developer in several tech startups, I recognize several important principles we've borrowed when building our company.
Solve your own problem.
As a coder, you build features that address a specific problem. You develop the ability to identify problems and their respective solutions. In my opinion, the best motivation one can have as a maker is to solve one's own problem. DULO exists because it solves a problem both my co-founder and I had—time wasted ironing and uncomfortable fabrics, both getting in the way of our work.
Programming teaches you problem-solving.
As a developer, I like to outline each step of a process, to ultimately end up at a place where I have a working solution to a problem. I know what I want to achieve and I reverse engineer it. You can easily apply this approach to any problem — from making a dress shirt to building a highway across the country. When we started we had just the idea, but it was crucial to create a manageable plan of execution. Knowing what we want to achieve we started to reverse engineer how we would get there. Suddenly, an insurmountable challenge turned into a sequence of logical and achievable steps.
Most programmers use what is already out there.
Programmers rarely build new things from scratch. A lot of the software one needs to make a web application, for example, is already available freely on the web. One can start quickly building on top of existing solutions. It allows for a speedy and reliable execution. We applied this approach when it was obvious that getting all the knowledge necessary to start on our own is impractical and time-consuming. We decided to work with a partner who can take care of the manufacturing side. We leveraged existing systems so we can build the brand on top of them. Also, we applied the same thinking when it came to making our online shop. We used Shopify which provides out of the box solutions for running an eCommerce business. This way, we were able to focus on brand building, content creation and making a product people love.
You can’t expect to ship a perfect product.
It is very hard to launch a product that has no flaws. What a lot of programmers and tech companies aim to do is to quickly build a stable version of a software that works as a minimum viable product (MVP). This stage is essential to keep up the momentum and speed when building something new. The MVP is also a proof of concept — that it is viable and there is a demand. We applied this philosophy when making our dress shirts. We began sampling as quickly as possible so that we could start testing the properties of the fabric and the look and feel of the shirt as a complete product. At that stage, we were not worried about imperfections. Striving for perfection is the surest way not to achieve perfection.
Test with real users.
Tech companies often launch products in closed alpha and beta testing stages. Those include a select group of people who are aware of the early stage of development and generally, the whole testing process is closely monitored and feedback is collected constantly. In our product development cycle at DULO, we went through three major iterations and over 70 dress shirt prototypes, before we committed to the final version. Our testers were friends and family, entrepreneurs who are building their own companies, and people potentially looking for a similar solution. We sent each of our testers a shirt and asked for their advice and feedback. We were monitoring closely for issues that could potentially harm the customer experience. With every piece of feedback we collected, we learned something new and made improvements to the shirt.
Your test users are your potential early adopters.
Involving actual users early on is a great way to build a closer relationship with a group of people who may become your early adopters. This is one of the most common ways for software companies to attract initial interest in the products and services they are making. It adds a bit of exclusivity to the experience, plus it allows for a quick and direct communication with each user. We probably didn't recognize the importance of this principle until a few days after we launched our online store. What we saw was really impressive - a lot of our testers and those who have been following our journey became our first customers and ambassadors for the brand. I can't stress how important this principle is for every new business!
Document, document, document.
Developers rarely work in isolation. They often collaborate with other programmers. To get external people quickly on board it becomes essential early on to document along the way and leave notes that serve as guidelines and explanation to why things are the way they are. At DULO, our core communication strategy is to document the journey of building the business. This results in a lot of content and references which will help future DULO employees to get on board quickly and understand the growth and development of the company.
In the short amount of time we have been working on DULO (as I am writing this it has been about 18 months since the inception of the idea) we applied those principles from the tech world into our operation. As we go forward, I am certain that we will include even more tactics inspired by the tech community.