**Sunday Edition: Retro!**
Sunday Edition: Retro!
#daily-stand-up
Why?
Take the time to reflect on your week. What's gone well? What can be improved?
To join in:
01 Share your epic (a big chunk of work with a meaty objective) you'd like to complete by the end of February.
02 Share your triumphs over the last week.
03 Share the concerns you've uncovered over the past week.
04 Share whether you're on track to achieve your epic and if not, what you'll do to course correct.
05 Comment on at least one fellow hacker's progress and give them an IH Point for their check in.
Optional:
06 Share your Work In Progress to underscore your accomplishments.
Then tune in the tomorrow to kick off another week hustling!
EPIC
February: Alpha Launched
TRIUMPHS:
CONCERNS:
ON TRACK?
As of today I believe so. I have alpha scheduled for Q1 with an epic targeted to actually deliver that at end of Feb. I do think I can deliver on the February target. Delivery definition is essentially that it is functional enough for me to build a product on top of the platform (essentially simulating a customer) and providing a tutorial along with video of that process.
WIP:
AutomatedAPI.com
I still don't quite if I'm a potential customer. I'm a developer, but what does it DO for me? What kinds of problems does it solve? What kinds of projects is it ideally suite for? What would I be searching for in Google that might lead me to your page?
Great point, I can see that's not clear on my screens at this point. I'll have to give it some thought.
My criteria for whether or not it should be used is basically "do you need complex logic inside your api or do you just need data access and storage (simple crud)?". Essentially, if all you need is CRUD ops, don't waste the hours if you don't have to. AutomatedApi will take your model, build a web api with basic crud operations, build a supporting database, and expose it for consumption in a matter of minutes.
So you the dev, can just focus on the front end and actual business logic your app is ultimately meant to deliver.
EPIC
By end of 2019:
100 paying customers. 5 earned to date.
By end of February:
TRIUMPHS:
Very excited to see folks actually couple up on the app! It's pretty damn cool to think that I could be responsible for someone's love story!
Really appreciate @AndrewV lending an experienced hand and helping me to automate one of my most tedious marketing tasks. He's a big bucket of awesome. 🙌🏾
Got a late start this month, but the hustling for chicks is solidly underway.
I stuck to my commitment of "no code".
CONCERNS:
Not one of my Geek Girl Spots has responded to my pitch to partner.
The Valentine's Day campaign was decent. Not great.
I'm spending too much money on Google Ads. I can afford it now with a main gig. But it's not sustainable when I go nomad.
Due to the late start, I'm not certain I'll hit my epics. Ugh.
ON TRACK?
Maybe. Not only will I need to hustle, but I'll also need to implement a creative and effective tactic for both first chapter and submissions. Anyone have any ideas?
WIP: Happy Endings
That automation was a fun little side project - that's the most I've embedded on a random site, and it was cool to see it develop to a useful point :)
That's a cool thing about having a good day job - you can play around with money to see what resonates! For me, I'd have to be very confident in my product before I spent much money on it.
And spending too much on ads is a form of "doing things that don't scale" - I think :) If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But if you find that sweet spot, you've got it. And! If it does resonate, you've got a good possibility of viral-ish growth (sorry, hate this term but it's the closest I can think of to what I mean haha) as people start using it or talking about it more.
01 Epic - figure out how to reintroduce default new tab page.
02 Triumph - figured out admin templates, created landing page: workspacemgr.com
03 Concerns - Not sure if landing page is ok
04 Not sure - I need to speak with some users directly
workspacemgr.com -- comments/suggestions welcome!
Checked out the landing page...
The problem that you're solving isn't evident. It would be cool to show a before and after. Too many tabs open and lost your way? Go from cluttered to organize. (Something along those lines.)
I'll be honest... I'm not a fan of the icon. It conveys neither tabs or bookmark.
The second section is great! And "Stop the tab madness" is worthy of being the top headline!
Last but not least, I think the button to install should look more like a button with a stronger CTA.
Great Feedback. Thank you!
Epic
Epic for February is to fill up the SaaS and mobile app Beta lists, and prepare both products for launch to said lists.
Triumphs
Over the last week I had another strong PUSH to close out a ton of stories and prepare for release. I used my app more and more, and keep piling on polish tasks. At this point I feel like my solution overall is superbly differentiated, is new, and better!
Concerns
I expected to have more Podcast beta signups by now. I'm happy to have 2, but yeah, concerned. I've reached out to a few directly to ask them for feedback on the concept. They're taking a long time to respond, and that means I'm not making it easy enough for them to even go take a look.
On Track
I'm a bit ahead of beta launch prep actually thanks to some huge bursts. I'm behind on beta signups, and I am writing a Medium article to help with that.
WIP
https://youtu.be/w3L0mLkiXDg
It is so hard to get feedback. I think I need to take a very personal approach to this. I think any sign of "this is an automated or bulk message" makes users think it's not that important.
I notice this with myself - I get e-mails about surveys and stuff all the time, and most of the time I assume they're getting plenty of feedback and I don't need to respond.
When I do get around to it, even if it is somewhat automated, I want to try to make it very personal. Something like:
From: andrew@
Subject: "Can I get a few minutes of your time to talk about <My Product>?"
Body: "Hey <name>, I really want to learn how Brisa is working for beta testers. Can you let me know if you've used it, or if it was confusing or didn't get you excited? If you have used it, did you like it, and can you give me some general thoughts on it? Just reply to this e-mail and I'll get back to you asap."
That all changed with my article yesterday. Who would've guessed it, content marketing really can work! I'm way past my February goals for signups now. There's a lot of smile in this comment :)
If IH were your app, you'd see a thumbs up explosion to this comment haha
Congrats! I'm super excited for you!
What was your epic # for beta sign ups? And what's been your tactic to date?
Going for 5! My tactic so far has been direct reach out to 2, and posting to 3 podcast FB groups. I just published an article on Medium today which seems like it could help, as I got reach out and hit 3 shows finally.