The client has a medium-sized promotional website that was stuck in the dark ages. While he has been using the website for years, he realized the site had become very outdated. The challenge was he needed the site updated very quickly so it could be ready for a convention he was attending. We worked together to layout his current site and we sketched his new site with a much friendlier UX, less pages and less clicks. I completed the modernization of his site, including a new backend infrastructure, in time for him to use it at the convention. 

This was a case of updating an already existing site. With this particular type of case (fast and pretty), I first focus on what I call, "making it not wrong." Meaning, let's take a look at what you currently have and 1) strip out everything that is currently out-of-date or simply not accurate any longer then 2) Remove\hide components which need updating that are either not necessary or not popular for the success of the site then 3) look at any overly complex functionality (or over-developed functionality) which are intrical to the site and simplify it.

The great thing about this is the client quickly received the updated "not wrong" website which looks great and provides all of the functionality and information needed. We are currently in the state where the client has been asking me to add more functionality and bells and whistles to his site as time permits. This allows the client and I to now look at all of the functionality that he wants included and to prioritize what gets implemented next; all along having a website that looks great and that is "not wrong" that is up and running and public facing. Another great benefit of doing it this way are the cost savings. Doing a little for a big impact costs much less than doing a lot for a little more impact then doing a little.

One of the most difficult things in digital product development is for the client to agree to deploy and publish their app\site. Knowing what done looks like and knowing that there are many levels of doneness is very important and should be a continual conversation throughout the journey. I always push to get the product published as quickly as possible but in a beautiful and "not wrong" state (this is generally called the MVP). We can then learn from the users of the product in order to ensure we are focusing on the right aspects of the next iterations of the product.

The client has a great idea and a great vision of what he sees as a final product. It is an app that helps kids and helps adults help kids. It is a really neat idea. He was referred to me from a previous client and came to me with a high fidelity figma presentation giving a great highlevel view of his vision. The original call was a consulting call with the intention to help guide him to the next step and be done. I recognized his passion and willingness to do whatever he needed to in order to turn his vision into a tangible product and the fact that I believe in his idea so I have been working with him for several months pro bono. 

The challenge was a common challenge amongst entrepreneurs and visionaries - breaking down their global vision into phases with the initial phase being what I call a "good enough" product. This type of product is usually the type of product that tests the waters, if you will. It is a usable version but it is not even a true MVP at this stage, in my opinion. In short, he wanted a mobile app but he this version will be a web-app (much cheaper and faster to publish).

Working together for a couple of months and iterating through several versions, where I would consult and he did the heavy lifting, we nailed down what we believe to be a "good enough" first version.  This version will be put together with duct-tape, gum and bailing wire (low-code/no code - heavily using available 3rd party open source software). We do this in order to get the product to market quickly to test the many theories of what the client feels the user will want so we can learn what it is the user truly wants. It is very common to learn things from the users that take us into a completely different direction then we thought we would go. This is a good thing and is a result of good experimentation in the market place.

Imagine this - you are a client\business owner and you really believe you know what your user-base wants and so you have your app fully developed to meet your complete vision. Sure, a good Product owner will do market research and consumer interviews and such in order to try to get an understanding of what the user will really want but a business owner like this often-times will not take those findings into account and will push on with their vision. The business owner in this case has spent, let's say, 12 months and $250,000 developing this app just to publish it and find that the users are only using 1/4th of the functionality and leaving comments suggesting changes and added functionality. Now we are in a situation of what I call "remodeling." I once bought a property that had a square gazebo. I wanted to make it an octagon so I added to it. I quickly found that it would have been faster, more sturdy and cheaper had I just started over and built it from scratch. Now the business owner has to spend more time and money updating the functionality to meet the desires of the user-base. Had they started with my "good enough" version, they would have saved a lot of time and money and reputation for that matter.

The other benefit of this is the financial aspect. Startup Entrepreneurs do not generally have a lot of money to invest in their vision. The best thing for them is to build their product as cheaply as possible, get users on the platform to provide feedback and react to the feedback as best as possible. Once the app is running somewhat smoothly with mostly good feedback, the business owner will then have the ability to start showing it to other consumers that might be interested in the app (for a cost) and they could even look for investors\ VC's to support the next iterations. Getting financial backing for a product idea is tough (virtually impossible) but getting the financial backing for a product that is being used and bringing in revenue with good feedback is a good possibility.

As of the writing of this article, we are in the middle of the development of the "good enough" phase. Since I have been in this industry for so long and since I have made many relationships with people with every kind of background you can imagine, I was able to find a very senior developer to do the development of this "good enough" version for free. (while I can, I choose not to do development as I know that is not my strong suit). I will update this article with our successes, learnings and other info as it progresses.

Small businesses need websites but when you are talking about a small local business that just needs to have some presence on the web for their lawncare service or their dog-sitter services, they do not necessarily need a huge robust website with an expensive hosting service. I have done several of these sites for small businesses. I approach these like I do large efforts and identify what is "good enough." 9 times out of 10, the client is happy with a simple marketing site that just has their information, some references and pictures and a contact form. This is honestly something most people could do themselves and there are services out there that are available that make it possible to do it 100% free. Mind you, every client I have done this for have elected to buy a domain so there is that expense but it is generally less than $100 for 4 years. The cost here is my time but depending on the client, I can do the entire site within a few hours or I can get the platform up with a template so they can update it and maintain it themselves for just an hour or so of my time. I actually leveraged this skill recently as a barter. I had a friend that his house flooded and so I decided I would build him a house. YIKES! For those things I could not do, I subcontracted them out to locally owned businesses and for a couple of them I was able to trade their service with a website I built for them. This is the website I quickly threw together that cost me nothing more then my time and the domain: www.helpnolen.com.

A client calls and says to me, I have been working with a small development group for about a year. We have an app up but it is not getting any traction and they are charging me a lot more money a month then I want to pay. What are my options? I talked with this client for about an hour and gave them several viable options and they took my advice and are very happy with their decision. I keep up with this client and I am hoping we can do more work together in the future.

I received a call from someone I have worked with in the past that was working with another group. She explained where she was at and that the app is at a state that she is happy with. She was given several options for ongoing support but each option added up to well over the amount of money she felt comfortable paying. After speaking with her for less than an hour, I was able to give her recommendations on possible next steps which she has chosen one and is very happy with the result. Again, this is another client I keep up with and I hope to work with in the near future.

A very senior developer reaches out to me recently stating he has a client that wants an app developed. While the developer is more than capable of performing the development, they needed some advice on how to make the client understand the process and how to convince them to focus on a smaller version of their vision to publish initially. After speaking with the developer, we agreed to setup a meeting with the client where I was able to explain to them the benefits of scaling down the initial version which lead them to understand and agree with the process.

Many others...