Posts Tagged "Web Development"


Over the past year I have been horrible about blogging. In fact after writing 50+ articles in a year, I went to virtually nil. What happened? It was all going so well. Well, life happened. Between building a business, helping my wife start her business, having a new baby, moving to a new home, traveling, trying to stay in shape etc. etc. I haven’t been on the ball. This is no excuse, because others seem to do it, but something I need to fix. I recently completed some personal projects and now am going to make some time for more blogging. Not necessarily for other people, but for myself. I found it to be a wonderfully cathartic exercise that I miss out on. Here are some updates that I will be sharing News on Printchomp – There is so much goodness going on that I need to do a better job sharing how awesome our team is and how much we are growing. Lots of news on this coming soon! Community News – Last year, I wrote my then last blog article on Why I moved back to the Waterloo Region. I have been kindly asked by Kara Swisher to contribute to her new kick-ass blog Re/code. You can expect for me to do a killer update on all the goodness going on with startups near me and the entire scene Startup lessons learned – Over the past 2 years with Printchomp and interacting with other startups, I have learned so much. After having a series of dinners with friends and colleagues namely ones with Scott Oldford and Alkarim Nasser, I realized that if I don’t share these lessons, I think I am missing out on the opportunity to crystallize them in my head and more importantly share them with others. I had an amazing trip to San Francisco a couple months ago and was so neglectful not to share all the cool people I got to meet with. Nope I won’t review your product – I am still getting regular requests to review new products. Unless it is something I stumble upon myself and is absolutely amazing I probably won’t write about it. I won’t do fake sponsored blogs either, unless what you are shilling is absolutely amazing and you’ll give me one (or have a truck full of cash show up). Trends – Being head down in my startup I am seeing a lot of cool technology trends, more importantly potholes and things to avoid. I’m going to try to share this stuff because there are some amazing things going on. Video Studio – I’m happy to...

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You are building too slowly

You are building too slowly


Posted By on Oct 25, 2011

When I was a child I played with Lego. If I was at home, I had the leisure of playing with my own Lego, and I could take my time and build an elaborate creation. I would go to meticulous detail in building ships, castles or other buildings. I realized there was a certain serenity to playing my own sandbox at my own pace. When I went to kindergarten, I noticed they had a large box of Lego. When I went to play with it for the first time, I got upset that there were other kids taking blocks I wanted to use. I wasn’t afforded the luxury of taking my time, because if I did, I wouldn’t have the pieces needed to complete what I wanted to build. This is a simple parable but it made me realize that I was building too slowly, and not afforded infinite timelines. I thought back to this during Democamp, where a company named VidYard built an impressive application in 16 weeks, got funded and are now on the upswing. This example made me realize that if you think you are building something quickly, you probably aren’t and will pay the price for it. The level of competition in the software/web application space has only gotten more intense. The ability of a focused and dedicated team to build something quickly is needed more than ever. What I have come to realize is that zealotry of innovation is powerful. People with a taste for both innovation and building something are hard to stop. Last week, due to this epiphany, I decided to try to tackle something in one week that would normally take me multiple weeks. I refocused, got team buy-in and went to work. This didn’t come without bumps – the time I would normally take to think out every nuance was not there. I stayed up late and built and tweaked until it was ready. I would argue that a perfect plan with nothing built takes a backseat to something that works that perhaps isn’t perfect. It may sound cliché, but a good plan today is truly better than a great plan later. At the end of the week, I lost a lot of sleep and built out something cool. I didn’t quite hit my timeline, but when I looked back at the week, I saw that my team and I had built a lot and learned a few lessons. So you want to build something quickly? How do you do it? Set an unrealistic timeline. How better to start this project? Ask yourself how long it would normally take on...

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1.  Create several key use cases for people to use your site – Why are people on your site? You spent energy getting them there, so now what? I always advocate to create a really few well-defined and streamlined use cases. You may already have a working site or be in the process of designing it from scratch. Ask yourself this question: If a visitor to your site was a tourist, what would you like them to see in your “site” or “city”? Are you sending them to a bad neighbourhood, or are they seeing the sights? Here are some examples of use cases: Get them to sign-up Find out more about your service/product – watch a video or read more Get them to purchase or sign up for your product/service These seem simple stupid, but it is shocking how many sites (especially web start-ups) don’t seem to have simple use cases defined to push people to these important steps. Don’t be one of those sites, make sure you have tightly defined use cases and your website is tuned around them. 2. Make it super easy for them to sign-up, so you can get their information – When a person comes to your site and is about to make the leap of faith to share information, make sure you are there for them. This is a big psychological leap for many; you need to make sure you do the right things to help them take the next step. Here are a few suggestions: Keep your form clean (don’t ask for information you don’t need)  – People don’t want to feel like they are doing their taxes by entering countless pieces of personal information. Keep things lean and mean, get some initial buy-in and you can always ask more questions after you get to know them. Think of it like dating. Add options like Facebook or Twitter connect – This has become a no-brainer these days. Gone are the days where some get uber-concerned about their personal profile (well some people at least). It is amazing how the click of one button vs. filling out a form has reduced inhibitions to share information. Style sometimes means substance – People are used to the finer touches when it comes to UI.  This could be a refined button, and it could be AJAX/JS pop-ups. The days of boring Post forms are dead. Take a little bit of time and even a bit of money on your primary form to ensure it looks the part in today’s web. People are not only looking for these refinements, they are expecting them. The bar is...

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