I failed to launch, then decided to pivot
A few weeks ago I was ready to launch my product budgie.chat on PH. Had a demo video recorded, landing page copy updated and a stable MVP, but I chickened out.
The next week I spent furiously reading up on current competitors and potential competitors. I had this nagging feeling that the product just didn't pack enough of a punch, the key value-adds just wasn't enough. It wasn't until I read that slack is busy rolling out video messaging that I realised my gut feeling is probably right; this product isn't going to work.
This kinda crushed me. I've worked on this MVP in all the "after-hour" time slots I could find. After a bit of moping and encouraging words from my wife I realised it's probably just time for a pivot.
The next few days all my thoughts would end up at Budgie. "Where can video messaging really add value ? Should I re-sell my tech as an API or SDK ? Maybe build more features to have video editing capabilities in the browser ?"
None of the questions really lead me to a practical solution, most of them would take me months more of development and still no marketable product.
My brain was tired from all the attempts at problem solving so I decided to park it for a bit and turn my focus back to my freelancing client work.
Very often I'd find myself needing to jump on a call with clients' customers or the client themselves to run through a bug. They try their best to explain to me the issues or difficulties they are having but it's rarely enough to send just an email. Having a user show the issues they are having instead of trying to explain it is a massive help to troubleshooting bugs.
This is where the lightbulb went on.
Async video messaging to empower customer support, sales, onboarding and more.
With a little bit of work I could re-use my existing product I've built and offer a product which improves client communications, and make interactions more personal while doing so.
So I started implementing the required changes to get this up and running, starting with a widget to use on your website. I'm super excited at the possibilities ahead for Budgie.
Here are some screenshots of my progress on building out the widget:
