Indie Hackers Vancouver

Originally posted on: https://www.bootstrapbc.ca/2019/10/indie-hackers-vancouver-october-meeting-notes-2019

Thank you for coming out this month!

💎 Venue Host 💎

Our venue host this week was iamota, a design-led digital agency with a focus on e-commerce in downtown Vancouver, BC.

They are hiring, check out their careers page!

⚡️ Lightning Talks ⚡️

Using Notion to manage your side projects

Presented by Mike Walker

• Try out Notion: https://www.notion.so/?r=45fb4d10dd294264a43bfa78035f1273 (Sign up with this link to $10 in credits to get started. I get $5 credit)
• How Chris Coyer uses Notion: https://css-tricks.com/how-ive-been-using-notion-personally-and-professionally/
• How we use Notion to Stay Organized and More Productive in our Operational Activities: https://www.prospectlabs.co/post/using-notion-to-stay-organised-and-productive-in-operational-activities
• Your first day with Notion (Keep Productive): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66fN1cZadPA

Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE)

Presented by Stefanni Brasil & Thiago Araujo

• Presentation Slides (Google)
• Millennial Revolution Blog
• Mr. Money Mustache
• Early Retirement Extreme
• “Quit like a Millionaire” (Book)
• Exploring Alternatives

Cost effective UX testing using unmoderated panels

Presented by Dana Epp

• Azure Application Insights
• Full Story
• Logrocket
• Usertesting.com
• Playbook UX
• The Mom Test (Book)
• KANO Model
• PMF model / Business of software conference talk

Other Resources from the event

• Marker Pad
• Auditwolf
• WeWorkRemotely.com
• Consider whether you should tell your employer about your side project

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After our last meet-up at the beginning of July, I asked the attendees to fill out an anonymous feedback form. We received 4 total responses. Even though it's a small portion of the attendees, we still got some fantastic notes. I'm going to share some of the feedback we received and provide some next-steps we will take to action the feedback.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback! Let's review!

Q1: What was your biggest learning / take-away from the Meetup?

We received some great, positive feedback to to this question. I am stoked to see people get real value from the group, and this helps inform what we should continue doing moving forward.

Here were some of the responses:

• The scene for tech meetups/networking is a lot larger than I thought!
• Very nice people sharing great insights. it was good to meet other indie hackers.
• Great ideas on how to grow my audience and scale the business.

Q2: Rate your level of engagement throughout the event (1-5)

Average score of 3.5 (out of a possible 5). 70% might be a passing grade in school, but 70% engagement for our meet-up group feels way too low. This tells me the organizers need to better facilitate discussions, to ensure no one feels left-out or checks out because we’re talking too long about something not interesting to them.

Q3: Did you feel that your ideas were heard? (1-5)

Average score of 4 (out of possible 5). I’m glad people generally felt heard. I know sometimes it can be difficult to inject your voice during a spirited discussion, but I’m glad that members (that responded) generally felt heard. We will continue to improve facilitation of discussions as much as we can!

Q4: Was the meetup a great learning experience for you?

Average score of 4 (out of possible 5). Again, those who responded thought this was a good learning experience. I’m very happy with this score. I’m always worried about wasting the time of the attendees. I’m happy to know they wouldn’t rather be washing their hair.

Q5: Would you recommend this meetup to your friend/colleague?

We got a unanimous “yes” to this question! 😃 🎉

Q6: How can we make the meetup better?

This was a long-form question to finish off the questionnaire. Thanks to everyone for the kind words, positive feedback and constructive notes. I’m not going to quote items verbatim here, but I will summarize the key points (as I see them):

• Be better organized. We have a limited amount of time together, and we should be making the best use of our time together. Limit the administrative chatter and dig into the real content people want to discuss ASAP.
• Limit the time you spend discussing a single topic. Use a timer to track how long we’ve been talking about a single topic. Either change topics after a certain period (maybe 15 minutes?) or ask the group to continue discussing for another 5 minutes to wrap up.
• Keep intros short. Give us your name and a short sentence or two about what you’re working on. Keep it under 30 seconds.
• Provide a better outline for meetings to set expectations for the evening.
• Networking is important. Provide time at the end of the event for networking and/or pick an second venue for after-event networking (e.g. drinks at a bar, food at a restaurant).

Summary

Thanks again for your feedback. I plan to continue soliciting feedback, and will continue to do my best to ensure this group provides the best experience possible to each attendee.

See you next time!

Reposted from original blog article here:
https://incredimike.com/blog/indie-hackers-vancouver-feedback-from-early-july-session/

Update: We've had to move our meetup date to July 2 to accommodate changes in venue. The new venue is Devhub / Lighthouse Labs.

Check out the meetup page for more details:
https://www.meetup.com/Indie-Hackers-Vancouver/events/262267600/

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Join Indie Hackers Vancouver for an "unconference"-style meet-up on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. We will be introducing ourselves, then have a quick discussion/presentation of topics before we break-out into groups to discuss each topic further. Members might have a lightning talk they'd like to give, or we could try some version of "speed geeking" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_geeking). Or we simply break into "starter" and "growth" discussion groups (this format seems to work well at other IH meetups). We'll figure out the format that night! Come armed with whatever you want to talk about. And if you just want to listen, that's fine too! :)

More details, including location, will announced soon. Join the group and RSVP for the event. https://www.meetup.com/Indie-Hackers-Vancouver/events/262267600/

One more thing. We are committed to holding monthly meetups during the last week of the month (either Tuesdays or Wednesdays). These meetups will be round-table or other unconference-style events. If you're planning an event or would to get the group together for something else, get in touch and I can help with communication and planning. We only ask that you follow the Code of Conduct for all of your events. https://www.indiehackers.com/code-of-conduct

Looking forward to seeing everyone on the 25th. Cheers!

This evening Indie Hackers Vancouver amassed a crew of about 20 people to begin the new chapter of meetups in Vancouver. The event was organized by Mike Walker and Osama Khan. The venue was provided by StreamLabs.

A big thanks to all the attendees for coming, and a special shout-out for Dana Epp for taking on impromptu moderator role.

A review of the event will be posted soon. We will also follow up in the next week with a meeting date for June.