tobinharris.com

Momentum

Most project have momentum up front. Everyone is pumped up. Quickly things trail off. We lose interest. We trend towards mediocricy just to get stuff done.

Instead, try "strumming". Keep projects very short. 2 weeks max. No 3 month projects. Keeps excitement up.

New features, new products. Junk things up in smaller bits. Project is done when you're stopped being pumped.

Planning is overrated.

If it works well, do more. If it doesn't, do less. No roadmaps. No functional specs. No writing what the product will do. No financial projections about goals. Wasted excersise. These things are all abstractions. Functional specs don't reflect reality. Reality is work. Specs don't relate to the real world. They lead to an illusion of agreement. We can all say we agree. But what is built is different. We didn't agree to what is built, they agreed to what was written.

No wireframes. No flow charts.

Don't focus on things that aren't real It's easier to reach for agreement when you're considering reality.

Decisions are temporary

37 signals credit card decision. The decision isn't permanent. These are temporary decisions. Optimize for now. What makes sense today? Don't worry about what is down the road. Software development is better based on what works now. No lock in. Small companies can try things out. Every decision is changeable.

Red Flag Words

Many words we use are common every day words These words make things go wrong They make projects go late "Need" is one example. "We need this feature", "We need more money" The truth is that few things are this necessary. Use it less. "Can't" is another word. "We can't launch without this"

The more "can't" you have, the less momentum you have.

"Easy" is a word you use to describe other peoples work. Imaginary work is a lot easier than real word. You're setting people up for failure.

"Everyone" is an extreme. "Nobody" is a bad word too. They create animosity. Fuel office politics.

Look out for these extreme words.

Interruption is the enemy of productivity.

The closer we are the less work we get done. The reason is that it's easier to interrupt everyone else. Taps on the shoulder. A required meeting. Calling out someones name across the office "check this out" you fragment their days into smaller chunks. A fragmented day is a less productive day. People get more work done early in the morning and late at night. Creative workers need uninterupted periods of work. Optimize work place by not seeing each other. Get together a few times a year. Look for ways to stay away from each other. Focus more on passive collaboration. Project management apps. Wikis. email. Interupting is saying "what I'm telling you is more important than what you're doing"

Focus on what doesn't change

This is the best advice. Software technology is focused on change. New tech. Ideas. Fads. You gotta hae iPhone. Facebook. There's lots of things that are changing. Don't focus on change Think about what's important today and in 10 years. Speed is a big deal. In 2018 people won't wish things are slower. Ease of use. Reliability. Up time. Over time you can build up a solid core by focusing on things that don't change. Amazon might focus on fast shipping. Customer service.

More features. Outdoing the competition.

There's a cold war of having the most "stuff" in your app. Don't play in the cold war. Don't try and be like the big guys. Don't take on MS, Google or Yahoo. Target non-consumption. Clayton Christian championed this idea. He talks about non consumption. "There are people out there who are non-consumers. They have a problem, but solutions are too expensive, unknown, etc. The reason is that the solutions providers keep moving up the ladder and making products that are too complex, hard. The market is at the bottom. The market the big players were in years ago. There's too much softare that's too hard to use. Solve simple software that solves simple problems that's usable.

Find the right size.

There's a right size for things. There's 2 things that grow. Business and tumours. These want to grow forever. Bigger is not better. Businesses think that the right size is huge. It's ok to maintain something small. churn. healthy business. not massive growth.

Making £1,000,000 is great. You're doing really well. You can have a great company on £1,000,000

Here's a trick What would your sofware lookk like if it's physical. Would it have 50,000 buttons. Would it be a big thing, a small thing. Think about the features - they're physical products.

Follow the Chefs

Famous chefs are a great inspiration. Jamie Oliver etc. These aren't the best chefs. The out teach, outshare and out contribute other chefs. They're not necessariy the best in the world. These people build brands by sharing. What's your cookbook? What can you tell people that will get them excited about what you're doing?

"You can outspend or out-teach your competition"

Share as much as you possibly can.

Always question your work. Think about what you're doing. Are we doing it because we want to do it? To increase sales? Because someone wants it? What problem are we solving? Is it an imaginary problem? Is it actually useful? Or just cool? Are we adding value? Every thing you add can take away.

Will this change behaviour?

A sin of software is that some things don't add value. Table headers in 4 columns of data that are obvious. Things that don't change behaviour should be lost. Is there an easier way? Always take the easy way.

Give up on hard problems.

Software developers love these. But they should give up. Solve simpe problems. There are loads of simple problems to solve. You CAN MAKE MONEY solving simple problems. They can be incredibly successful.

What you are

You are an editor Your product is a museam You're the curator. You're going to get input from all over the place You have to take some of those things and decide what's going on the wall Anyone can build a project management tool. What makes your product different is what goes on the wall. You have to say "no" to more things that you say yes to. This is the big deal This is what separates you.

Working less

37 Signals don't work on Fridays. 8 hours a day, 4 days a week more productivity The typical work week is full of stuff that doesn't matter You knock that shit out of your day when you have less time You move toward efficiency. Friday @ 4 O Clock can wait til monday Most people are in the office for 8 hours, but they don't work 8 hours.

Questions

How do you chunk large projects down? 37 Signals threw Highrise v1 away. They decided to focus on 3 things Who do you talk to? What was said? What do you do next? Once they solved that, the product was done. Use the product as you build it.

How can you get 3 things done in one week instead of one thing done in 3 weeks? Ask this question.

*How do you deal *