Since the FreshPoint project is about to be kicked off, I need to give a rough budget of time investment, I started thinking about what is the most efficient way for design to work with development.
The standard, of course, is design first then development. But is that really the only way, can there be cross over where both process can occur at the same time? Maybe....Let me do some research.
I think first thing is whether to leverage lower-fidelity prototype. At SAP, we did all prototypes high fidelity mainly because 1) there's a robust design system, 2) you had to use existing components, and 3) sometimes turnaround time is too short to explore different options.
Currently I'm trying to build an app, an idea that I had when I was working at SAP. I feel like I've had a lot of ideas/dreams and now it's finally the time to realize one as a period of unemployment also happens to set in. It's kind of sad because I don't think I've ever made/contributed to a product that I've been really proud of.
Some early thoughts:
it's really hard
It's a lot of constant self doubt
It's a lot of thinking you ain't good enough to do this
It's lonely because you're different from most peers
You won't make money
But the good:
You can really learn so much
You have full control to shape your outcome
It's fun and exciting
In the process of learning and constantly thinking about how tf I'm going to make it work, I stumbled upon this video. Here are some of my main takeaways:
Idea
- idea is important, think long term, target a growing market
- you want an idea that has a balance of seeming good or bad, if it's too good, everyone would do it, target a niche and grow
- it's better to build something yourself needs, or you need to know the customers very very well
Product
- you need a great product first before other stuff
- build something a small number of people love, very little startups die from competition but not making something users love
- get the initial users manually and constantly get feedback from them to create something they love
- the tightest feedback loop is super important
- be honest and focus on important metrics
Team
- cofounders need to be someone you know (relentlessly resourceful), you need a technical cofounder
- try not to hire (chance of hiring someone bad is very high), you need people who believe it as much as you do, you either spend 0% or 25% hiring
- what to look for: 1) are they smart? 2) do they get things done? 3) do I want to spend a lot of time around them?