The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - Norrick Takes One Last Kick At The Can

Norrick Takes One Last Kick At The Can

I'm just following up my last two career rants, in which I decided I don't want to be a developer anymore.

I've figured out what to do with myself.

Over the last 10 years I have touched on many parts of the software business. But the one thing I always wanted to do, and never did, is release my own product. I had a product concept nailed down and prototype built, but never pulled the trigger on it, despite indications that there is a decent market for it. And that is really my only regret about the time I've spent as a developer.

So here's the plan: I'm going to develop my concept out to a 1.0 release and put it into the marketplace. If I see any indications that the product has an upside, I'll pursue it to a 2.0 and go from there. Keeping in tune with my desire to not write code anymore, I've enlisted a developer whom I can manager through the development process.

If the 1.0 is completely dead in the water, I'll leave development behind and go into commercial debt collections, an industry I worked in during my college years.

So there it is. Not that anybody cares, per se, but I figured I'd post my decision rather than leave anybody hanging.

Norrick
Tuesday, March 23, 2004

thats a _good_ plan norrick.

good luck :)

(any hints as to what the product is?)

FullNameRequired
Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Whether or not it's a _good_ plan remains to be seen. ;) But it is better than having no plan at all!

The product fits a niche in the HRM marketspace. I'll get more into the product specifics later, once it's well under way.

Norrick
Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Norrick,

Good luck. As someone who's brought 19 software products to market here's my advice:

1. Give the market enough time to respond to your advertising/marketing efforts.
(We spent a year or two making <$200 a month. It then went up to $2,000 a month and so on).

2. HOWEVER, make sure you've got SOME way to measure the effectiveness of each step of the sales process:
a. Attracting enough potential customers to your website/literature.
b. Getting enough actual prospective customers out of that group to seriously consider your product.
c. getting sales.
d. Getting referred sales - a sure sign of a good product.

If you want any advice or a sounding board, JoS is great or drop me a line.

Mr. Analogy
Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Good points. I've thought about those sort of issues in the macro but not in the micro.

I'll be sure to hit you up for sage wisdom. I can run a hell of a development project, but the bigger picture stuff will be a (much wanted) stretch assignment for me.

Norrick
Tuesday, March 23, 2004

good luck.

Prakash S
Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Norrick,

Just wanted to tell you that you have another JOS poster in your corner and that I too would like to read further posts on how your plan is progressing. The smart thing about what you are doing is that you have something to fall back on if Plan A doesn't work out as well as you hope it does.

Good luck and keep posting.

One Programmer's Opinion
Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Since it has been the topic of numerous discussions here in the past: what kind of deal did you go for with the developer?

Just me (Sir to you)
Wednesday, March 24, 2004

"The smart thing about what you are doing is that you have something to fall back on if Plan A doesn't work out as well as you hope it does."

Thank you for the vote of confidence, but whether or not having a fallback position is smart remains to be seen. I've always been a big fan of the "burn your ships" method of motivating myself. Some would say that even having a fallback plan in mind is self-undermining. I'm not sure I agree.

After all, just living in America means a guy can go into damn near any business he wants to go into, anytime he wants to go into it. I will always have SOME fall-back position simply because there are so many opportunities. But I guess it's nice that I've actually bothered to define which fall-back position I want to fall back to. ;)

I'll definitly post the odd update. Instead of posting career angst, I'll probably start posting entrepreneurial angst. ;)

"Since it has been the topic of numerous discussions here in the past: what kind of deal did you go for with the developer? "

Straight cash.

Norrick
Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Hey, Norrick, Good luck

I am doing exactly the same - i have even put up one version of my code on my web site...Let's see if it works

KS
Wednesday, March 24, 2004