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Trying to fund "DevTools for designers" using Kickstarter, feedback needed

I launched Gimli (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/182057119/gimli) on kickstarter about three weeks ago. Right now, it doesn't seem like it will reach it's goal. Feedback and tips are super welcome.

#product-feedback-request

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    What other payment models have you considered?

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    So, you are solving a problem I face all the time. I am a designer and front end developer and am constantly switching between tools. I want to be able to change the front end code as fast as I can in Sketch, while still maintaining clean and accessible HTML and CSS.

    I currently use Atom to dev, but would switch to VSCode if this works like I think it does. This evening, I was just talking to a coworker about a tool I wish existed – something where I can go into the browser devtools, hit start, make a bunch of css changes, and then get a diff of what css i changed when I'm done. It looks like your tool is more visual and automatically opens up the source code, so that would be even faster.

    I supported your campaign. I wish I knew of more people to introduce you to, but sadly I don't know where that community hangs out.

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      Thanks! - You are my 200th backer!
      The initial plan was actually to support atom and not VSCode . But then everyone seemed to switch to VSCode, so I tried it and really liked it.

      I posted on Hackernews on launch-day which generated a lot of traffic, and got retweeted by VSCode's twitter account. But besides those places, I don't know either.

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        I still think about your project when I'm tweaking styles in devtools and then have to deal with reincorporating into the project. Hope you are still working on it :-) I still use Atom, but let me know if you ever need a beta tester!

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    Why do you need so much money?

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    I don't know what DevTools for designers means, and I work with designers every day.

    What pain are you solving for them?

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    My questions for you, which may help you get some feedback, or not?

    • What problem does this tool solve?
    • Have you tried speaking with your kickstarter backers to learn about where they hang out and in turn talk to front-end developers directly?
    • What was the motivation for this tool? Were you solving a problem you had yourself?
    • there are a ton of people who starred VS Code on Github, have you tried reaching out to them? https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/stargazers

    It just feels like IH is not the right audience to ask for feedback, or your post is not framed in a way to get good feedback from front end developers who hang out here.

    It's clear there is some backing and people see this as a useful tool, but I would want to know who those people are, why they are backing this, and how to get in touch with more of those people. VS code community would be a good place to start (whatever that might be). Perhaps there are meetups too? Popular blogs you can reach out to and see if they can cover your product somehow for some early discount or something?

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    Looks pretty cool.

    However, I doubt developers would opt to use this tool as it seems to be quite simple as it only offers support HTML/CSS (or am I missing something?)

    What is your unique offering in this product? Is it the visual editing?
    Again, it looks quite cool, but you'll need to find a market for it too.

    Maybe this can be used as a tool for people who are trying to learn to code, maybe for designers who don't code? I don't mean to step on your toes, just thinking where the best fit would be. From the example/video I couldn't see a bold feature that would attract experienced developers.

    In terms of the crowdsourcing, if you don't think you can reach the goal, perhaps you should start selling the tool as-is for a reduced price through your website. This way you can learn the market + generate some income at the same time while working on this project .

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      Well, it's an extension for VS-Code which already offers really good tools for Javascript editing. I would say the unique offering is the visual editing tools which can be used with whatever framework you chose (React, WordPress and so on). A lot of tools offer visual editing today but it tends to vendor-lock the user into their service, like Wix and the like.

      Anyway, thanks for the reply. It's quite a niche product since it sort of turns towards people who are VS-Code users. I've had some people asking if it's a web or stand-alone app, someone thought it was an extension for Visual Studio. Which is another IDE from Microsoft.

      But yeah, as-is could be a way to go. I will have to think about it.

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        Oh cool, thought it was a webapp initially. Anyways, form the little I've seen, it looks pretty cool, but the real question is if it's appealing enough for developers.

        I know that for myself, if I work on a non-IDE WP or a JS-based project similar to VS-Code, I wouldn't necessarily need a visual editor next to the code base other than checking the browser every now and then.

        It doesn't mean there's no need for such extension, but you'll probably need to find out if there's a sufficient market for this

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