Bringing bright ideas to life
•
0 likes•562 views
Who would have thought putting 140 charachter messages about one's life online or having a virtual farm game could ever be popular ? Then again, many of us have those weird (but sometimes brilliant) ideas. But no matter how incredible your ideas might be, getting them launched successfully takes more than writing lots of php code, smacking a sleek design on it and dropping it on a server. So what does it take ? Where do most ideas crashland and how can you avoid making the same mistakes and transform your ideas into reality ? We'll look at what steps are needed to make a service successful and sustainable.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Bringing bright ideas to life
Similar to Bringing bright ideas to life (20)
More from Wim Godden
More from Wim Godden (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Bringing bright ideas to life
- 1. Bringing bright ideas to life Wim Godden Cu.be Solutions @wimgtr
- 2. Show of hands Ever had a brilliant idea ? Actually launched it ?
- 3. Who am I ? Wim Godden (@wimgtr)
- 10. My town
- 11. My town
- 12. Belgium – the traffic
- 13. Who am I ? Wim Godden (@wimgtr) Founder of Cu.be Solutions (http://cu.be) Open Source developer since 1997
- 14. Who am I ? Wim Godden (@wimgtr) Founder of Cu.be Solutions (http://cu.be) Open Source developer since 1997
- 15. Who am I ? Wim Godden (@wimgtr) Founder of Cu.be Solutions (http://cu.be) Open Source developer since 1997 Developer of OpenX PHPCompatibility PHPConsistent Nginx SLIC ... Speaker at Open Source conferences
- 16. Who are you ? Developers ? System/network engineers ? Managers ?
- 17. The Idea
- 18. Question 1 Is it really brilliant ? Is it original ? → Google it Why doesn't it exist yet ? Option 1 : you're brilliant ! Option 2 : the idea isn't :-(
- 19. Is it a good idea ? How to find out... Option 1 : Build it Pros : You see results You encounter the problems Cons : Possibly wasting time/money Will it work ?
- 20. Is it a good idea ? How to find out... Option 2 : Talk to people Pros - get feedback from : Peers Possible customers People with different vision Cons : Could steal your idea → Don't explain every little detail → If they get it right away : is it really a good idea ?
- 21. Building it – size matters Build small Faster time-to-market → faster feedback Add features step-by-step Danger : easier to replicate
- 22. Building it – size matters Build big Time-consuming → Requires big budget → Cash-flow (!) Harder to replicate
- 23. Don't reinvent the wheel Leverage existing services : APIs (payment providers, RSS feeds, cloud providers, …) Ticketing systems Monitoring systems ...
- 24. Scalability
- 25. Scalability – the impossible
- 26. Scalability – the impractical
- 27. Scalability – living on the edge
- 28. Scalability – the uh... never mind
- 29. Scalability – hitting the limit
- 30. The Cloud – the fairy tale
- 31. The Cloud – the wake up call
- 32. Support
- 33. Scaling support
- 34. Scaling support
- 35. Financials
- 36. Success ? Now what ?
- 37. Building on the success – API enabling
- 38. Building on the success – Plugins/add-ons/...
- 39. Building on the success - white labels
- 40. Sharing ideas ? For managers
- 41. Sharing ideas ? For managers
- 42. Sharing ideas ? For technical people
- 43. So... Be a realist Build small/large depending on budget Think about scalability IT Organization Support Do the math Either : Keep on building Sell in time
- 44. I WANT YOU TO BUILD YOUR IDEAS
- 45. Questions ?
- 46. Questions ?
- 47. Thanks ! @wimgtr wim@cu.be
Editor's Notes
- What I'd like to talk about is ideas go from having an idea to building a product or service Most of us work in web use an online service as example
- I know it's been long morning already, To keep everyone awake I'll ask for a bit of audience participation Who here has ever had a brilliant idea, one that they thought could be very successful ? Who actually managed to build and launch it ?
- So what's the first thing you need to ask yourself when you have this *brilliant* idea ?
- Why has nobody built it ? Or have they ? → Google it Disappointed : found it → or happy to use it Not found ? → Why not ? First person to come up with it ? Or bad idea ?
- Another possible issue : scalability. Your idea might work for 2 people, even for 5. But maybe the larger the scale, the harder it becomes to operate, to maintain, or to just to make the physics work.
- Take for example : lifting people with a balloon. Although you might think this is possible. In reality it takes far more balloons thank you might think, which, ofcourse you will discover when you try to build it.
- But with some modifications you might succeed and it'll look a bit like this. Not really convenient, but it works. And people really did this.
- Although not always with the desired outcome. So you can tell that from airships like the Hindenburg is : the more people, the bigger it gets, which makes sense ofcourse. But at some point it becomes impractical.
- Unless ofcourse everybody would be like balloon-man. But bwah, let's move on from that !
- The point is : almost every idea has a limit in terms of scale. And it's important to figure out *what* that limit is before you actually launch your product or service. Does that mean there's no way around the scalability problem ? Well, it'll depend on what the exact issue is. But not thinking about scalability is a precursor to disaster.
- let's quickly talk about that magical thing called The Cloud. When I talk to people about how they will scale their new applications, I often get the response : oh, we're going to deploy it in the cloud, as if that will magically solve all their scalability issues. Now, to be clear, I'm not against using the cloud, I'm just afraid people have the wrong impression of what the cloud is and what it can do for them.
- Deploy in cloud → give up control to provider with servers everywhere. No control over location of app/db/cache servers and how they conncet In other words : deploy to cloud = solution for certain scalability issues, but introduces other scalability issues. Larger online services grow in the cloud → migrate to own infrastructure Prepare site for 50 billion visitors/day ? No ! But know limitations and work around the ones you expect in first 6 months Side-note : SLIC
- Scalability = more than scaling service → Scaling organization to handle volume → = scaling people → accounting → handle orders → production → last but not least : provide support
- Whatever you sell → provide support Sometimes pick up phone / answer mail Other cases → consultancy, go on-site
- Even 24/7 support Unable to provide proper support ? → Company copies idea AND support → Company provides just support Support = requirement to keep reputation at highest level
- Part managers love Techies not so much Financial equasions have to be right Idea for product 1/month → might seem good What if you don't sell 1/month ? → losing money 10000/month needed → scale problem → provide to 10000 → support 10000 → requires money too ! Important to know in advance, before building
- Imagine : successful + plenty customers Now what ? What's next ? Some thinking : sell it ! Do you want to sell after hard work ? Answer : it depends ! Can improve and attract more customers : grow service first. Reached maximum potential : sell ! Find highest bidder. But think about what idea you want to work on next.
- Let's say you want to grow service. You can build API for almost anything → offer for free or small price → others make money for you → others depend on you → make sure it scales
- Provide service as a white label service to others Company references removed → replaced by their logo and name Useful for A/B testing : 1 white label partner with A, other with B → doesn't affect own customers Beware : downsides of white labels like competing with own customers
- Employee with good ideas ? How to get employees to share ? Provide incentives → Pure money-wise (% of profit → but what is profit ?) → Stock options
- Better : give person lead role (with higher paycheck) + bonus if turnover reached from product/service Having person with idea → best knowledge and view → better chances of success Motivate people to share ideas in exchange for something of value. Don't expect they give ideas for free. Good ideas → more customers → more profit → worth money
- First of all : don't give ideas for free → ideas are worth something. Simple ideas : pat on back, beer/ceg, one-time bonus Ideas must be appreciated. Otherwise company culture = screwed up → look for new job Why give idea to company ? → Money + people → tightly linked Point is : don't have money or people to build it on your own → talk to company and make a deal → they get great service → you get valuable in return → Better letting them build and market it than nobody and good idea to waste