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Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

derrickreimer.com

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Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#191

Post by ronpeled »

tardo99 wrote: post #33

I'm not sure I understand the business model Derrick was pursuing, but the objective seems very interesting. Maybe instead of shutting it down he should consider pivoting Level to a FOSS approach modeled on something like lichess. Maybe a set of early adopter companies would be interested in joining in to help build and support the product. There would obviously be less or maybe no immediate financial incentive in it…

I agree. It seems like he pulled the plug a bit early but honestly he would know better than all of us if it makes sense or not. Perhaps he have found a better project to sink his teeth into...

Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#192

Post by ackbar03 »

trustfundbaby wrote: post #115
ekanes wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> then my answer to you is like that punchline in the Famous "Coming to America" skit ... Don't find it but it sounds fun! Got a link?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKsSvR5u-qk

That's actually really good

Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#193

Post by sa46 »

detaro wrote: post #120
sa46 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the company. At our 6 year old startup, email is dead except for external communication. Everything is on slack including ops, stand ups and informal communication. At Google, hangouts was lightly used but everything was on email.

Curious, how large is the startup?

In the ballpark of 140.

Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#194

Post by Kiro »

boudewijnrempt wrote: post #122
derrickreimer wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. Slack is undoubtedly sticky, although I challenge the assumption that all integrations need to be replicated in a niche play. Those who did adopt Level were willing to give up a number of integrations that were low-value to them or were just causing noise that proved unnecessary.

I was struck with " They recognize that Slack is not suitable for meaningful conversations, so they automatically delete chat messages older than a few weeks to discourage relying on it for long-term archival." in your article. It's something I feel quite strongly about: chat should not be archived. There should be no backscroll; being not around when people are talking means not being part of that conversation. Chat…

I disagree. I use the search function in Slack all the time. Documentation can't replace the meta discussions that give you the bigger picture and help you resolve specific problems. Slack is like our company's own Stack Overflow.

Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#195

Post by ehnto »

trustfundbaby wrote: post #66

I read this, and all through the article I kept waiting for the part where the author would talk about his own experience using his own product. What I'm getting at is that, its really difficult to get people to love something you build unless you love it yourself, Seth Godin touches on this in his book "This is Marketing" I like the data driven approach to product development, but sometimes passion trumps data, if y…

I found that I am passionate about my skillset but not the industry as a whole. So my industry experience doesn't lend itself to spotting problems I can care about. Passion has never really affected my ability to deliver once I spotted a problem I thought I could solve, but I would be lying if I said I hadn't quit early on a few projects because I just didn't care if they failed. Sometimes I wish I were more ruthlessly in love with money to use that as a driver, but I'm not.

So I have been trying out developing cycling products. My skillset still applies, bootstrapping an online business and all the technology involved with it. Except now the purpose is delivering a product I care a bit more about. I am finding it far easier to stay motivated for this project. If only because I actually want to use it myself once it is done.

Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#196

Post by taurath »

bluGill wrote: post #75
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the rationale behind that?

Legal. When we are sued (we make equipment used in dangerous environments, and we have a lot of money, so if there is the slightest chance we can be blamed we will be sued) US law says we need to give all relevant information to the other side. That includes any saved chat logs and emails. However if something was deleted before we are sued we don't have to give it out. We lost a law suit once because a [not native E…

You can make chat unavailable after x months along with email. Of course if actively being sued that may be longer.

Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#197

Post by carlsborg »

Very hard to do front end build out and UI tweaks and backend and product planning and customer development as a one man shop. Consider finding a motivated offshore dev to hand over the non-core bits and pieces - the net time it frees up can be dramatic, speaking from experience.

Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#199

Post by robfitz »

tomcam wrote: post #32

Powerfully familiar. I have learned similar lessons. In my mind “The Mom Test” is the most important business book for high-tech entrepreneurs, and I wish it existed a few years before it was released.

Hah, me too, but couldn't write it till I had taken my knocks first ;)

Re: Walking Away from the Product I Spent a Year Building

#200

Post by robfitz »

ddtaylor wrote: post #57
sam0x17 wrote: post #55

I mean I've done this with things I spent 3-4 years building :/

Same here. I am in the process now of checking out The Mom Test book and seeing how we failed in getting soft interest.

Hope it's helpful somewhat. Give me a shout if you have any further questions or issues with it.
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