Sk8 Plan

I met with a couple business mentors, to help me get out of my own head on a couple decisions that are holding me back.

• Continuing research to try to find a more one-size-fits-all solution, vs releasing (sooner) a product that solves the problem for one segment of my audience

• Continuing working with potential customers individually, vs trying to bring them together for group discussions

Where I'm at with those right now is to cut across both decisions by releasing a focused solution to one segment and attempting group discussions with those early beta customers. My customers are very scattered geographically, so probably will try more engaging things like video chat, with discussion forum as a last resort, lowest common denominator solution.

A local coworking space has a weekly event where someone shares their idea and gets feedback via group discussion.

Just prepping for this gave me some needed clarity, and helped me realize I had been spending too much time in my own head.

The audience mostly thought I already had a good feature set to start with, and just needed to execute more.

Three main features:

1. Scheduling: Keep an accurate record of lesson times to reduce chaos and increase efficiency
2. Communications: Use simple interactions such as push notifications to allow the coach to manage scheduling changes and offer extra lessons
3. Payment: Allow coaches to request payment (aka invoice) and allow students/parents to pay, all within the app

The past couple months I have interviewed 20+ people. Several were spontaneous and I didn't record them, but I do have notes on 20.

Major takeaways so far:

• A lot of validation that tools for these indie coaches are pretty rough
• Some of them have either looked for tools to help, or have cobbled their own solutions together (excel, calendars, salon-style appointment Saas, paper and pen)
• Everyone has different problems, so I'm not yet finding a one-size-fits-all solution

Its still very hard to figure out what my MVP should be, out of all the things I want to do. Feels like I need to start with some really basic needs first, and only then would be able to build up to the other things.

I found a connection who is an ideal potential customer and interviewed them. It was a great experience, though I need to do a lot more to have any validation of my takeaways.

I spent time over several days to work through the Business Model Canvas. Also shared it with a business friend and got some helpful feedback. She's not a potential customer but knows the domain a little.

I decided to take this idea to the next level and get more serious about it. It was Father's Day, and I really want this app to exist for my daughters who will be coaching other figure skaters next year or so.