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How We Fooled Ourselves Into Waiting Too Long To Launch

viniciusvacanti.com

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Re: How We Fooled Ourselves Into Waiting Too Long To Launch

#51

Post by lusr »

EREFUNDO wrote: post #16

Great article. Launching fast is always a good thing for any startup. The challenge with our startup, PayGuard, is that we are a payments processing service. Building the site is not the issue, the integration with financial institutions are. We were able to build the Alpha version of the product with all the key basic functionalities in 6 weeks but we could not test it yet to actually transfer money. We began testin…

It's good to see somebody else building a complex product. People seem to forget that not all projects can be launched overnight - if you're building a WordPress plugin then, sure, you can launch and start selling it immediately, and iterate new features thereafter. If you're building something that effectively provides access to a complex technology (algorithm, integration point, workflow, etc.) then the time-to-usefulness can be much longer.

Re: How We Fooled Ourselves Into Waiting Too Long To Launch

#52

Post by PanMan »

john_flintstone wrote: post #35
NameNickHN wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whatever they speak in Belgium Dutch and French. :-)

That doesn't help. If I listen to the 10 o'clock news in the Netherlands, do I get a choice of languages? Newspapers in two languages? Parliamentary questions and interviews in 2 languages? Seriously?

The Netherlands only has one language, Dutch. Belgium has two: the top part speaks Dutch, the bottom part French. And they don't really seem to like each other. And, yes, official things are in both languages.

Re: How We Fooled Ourselves Into Waiting Too Long To Launch

#53

Post by shawnc »

wpietri wrote: post #49
shawnc wrote: post #5

We launched early, asked for money right away, and have been doing excellent ever since. Now our problem is defining what makes a 'final, out of beta, stable' version. Defining it, and then meeting it. We're constantly going 'this isn't good enough for a final release'. But hey, almost 300 paying users right now is motivation to make it better for THEM, and not for us and our imaginations of what is better. With thos…

Bravo! Why do you care about "final"? I can't imagine you'll stop iterating in response to customer feedback, so isn't "final" an illusion?

You're exactly right. I should restate I mean '1.0 final' so we can say we are out of beta and anyone that buys it can know they're now getting something that has no problems with it.

Re: How We Fooled Ourselves Into Waiting Too Long To Launch

#54

Post by wpietri »

shawnc wrote: post #53
wpietri wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bravo! Why do you care about "final"? I can't imagine you'll stop iterating in response to customer feedback, so isn't "final" an illusion?

You're exactly right. I should restate I mean '1.0 final' so we can say we are out of beta and anyone that buys it can know they're now getting something that has no problems with it.

In my view, that's more about the "Crossing the Chasm" transition from rabid early adopters to the early mainstream market. In your shoes I'd interview various potential customers to see what each group considers must-have features, and listen carefully to any early mainstream people that have used your current version.

Re: How We Fooled Ourselves Into Waiting Too Long To Launch

#55

Post by EREFUNDO »

lusr wrote: post #51
EREFUNDO wrote: post #16

Great article. Launching fast is always a good thing for any startup. The challenge with our startup, PayGuard, is that we are a payments processing service. Building the site is not the issue, the integration with financial institutions are. We were able to build the Alpha version of the product with all the key basic functionalities in 6 weeks but we could not test it yet to actually transfer money. We began testin…

It's good to see somebody else building a complex product. People seem to forget that not all projects can be launched overnight - if you're building a WordPress plugin then, sure, you can launch and start selling it immediately, and iterate new features thereafter. If you're building something that effectively provides access to a complex technology (algorithm, integration point, workflow, etc.) then the time-to-use…

That is why we're trying to figure out ways to test key functions that does not require integration. We are currently focusing on user experience and logic workflow.

Re: How We Fooled Ourselves Into Waiting Too Long To Launch

#56

Post by Domenic_S »

NameNickHN wrote: post #31
Domenic_S wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to sound trite, but that sounds like a lack of planning -- in the form of a question, what's your MVP? If you're clear on that, you point to the doc and say "how does this new idea/feature help accomplish this?" and force a specific answer.

It was all planned out and I myself had a clear path outlined but if your partner is supposed to do the marketing and PR and simply refuses to start with it, what are you going to do?

That's the other big piece of any business: buy in. You can have the best project roadmap in the world but if everyone else acts like it doesn't exist it's not very helpful!

Re: How We Fooled Ourselves Into Waiting Too Long To Launch

#57

Post by shawnc »

wpietri wrote: post #54
shawnc wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're exactly right. I should restate I mean '1.0 final' so we can say we are out of beta and anyone that buys it can know they're now getting something that has no problems with it.

In my view, that's more about the "Crossing the Chasm" transition from rabid early adopters to the early mainstream market. In your shoes I'd interview various potential customers to see what each group considers must-have features, and listen carefully to any early mainstream people that have used your current version.

I know thisis a really late reply, but I wanted to say thank you for your reply and input. Really appreciate it!
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