Validate my idea please!
I have an idea that has stuck with me for a while and I'm tempted to finally start working on it. Feedback to the feasibility would be welcome!
I want to build a product that helps freelancers and agencies to align with clients on the requirements of a project.
I have a system in mind that would make it easy to add the requirements in a simple, but structured way. "I want a 'page' called "Contact", "on this page a user should be able to...". It should be really fast for people to compose sets of requirements.
Clients can be invited to projects and can comment on certain things.
Clients are also able to "Approve" a set of requirements, for example for a page.
Once everything is approved both the client and the agency/developer can be sure they are on the same page and have some clear documentation to what has to be made.
Why do I think this is something potential clients need? Because my agency experience has been that gathering requirements and communicating them to clients is all over the place. A lot of frustration on multiple levels (client, developers, project managers, ...) comes from not being alligned on the requirements.
Why do I fear it might not be something people want? Because there doesn't seem to be anything like it on the market. Existing tools feel very enterprise and old.
Also people might still want to keep using google sheets and email...
Any feedback?
I think there's something here. I heard a similar idea a while back (a person that will never deliver) for an app that helps find the middle ground for divorces. There are surprisingly large number of negotiations in life but they're often not classified as such so we don't assign the importance and clarity needed.
There's a twitter account UseFYI, started by @hiten, that might have some valuable resources for you.
Hope that helps,
I don't have a lot of experience here. I'm wondering if this relies heavily on asking the right questions and managing expectations of the client. And I'm sure some clients don't know what they need, and are looking for guidance.
Yes, a lot of clients don't know what they need. That's one part of the problem.
The other part of the problem is that people are making too many assumptions. Sales can think "ok, I sold a site with a blog, great!", client can think "well that one blog can sort posts based on the color of the image, that was cool, the agency is cool, I'm sure my blog will do that", and the developer thinks "well my CMS only sorts on date, they will probably just want that", the designer thinks "well I have designed it with a closed sorting dropdown, everyone will now what is in their without me showing it".
The most successful projects, where everyone is happy seem to be the one where every detail is described in a document. But I think this app can do even a better job than a shared Google doc.
hi tim, i think its a good idea, however , you will need to align your idea on an existing process that a lot of people are using. And there is where your issue is , there might not be a standardised way of doing it. Maybe there is , and if so, that will be your starting point
I think there is a standardized way to do these things, but I don't think the people who do it like that are my target audience. Because of the complexity I feel like most of the time big software companies use them, and they have dedicated people to help with that.
Because of my experience I think it's more useful to target small agencies and freelancers (there are a ton of them, and I think they usually adapt new software quicker than large software companies). They almost always have no standard procedure to deal with this and just do what feels right.
The big decision will be: do I still use a standard process (and try to use it's vocabulary etc as good as possible) and try to make it as easy as possible for them? Or do I give myself the freedom to create something that will cater as much to the target audience as possible?