Inventarium.mobi - Do not make your users angry
Today, I launch the inventarium.mobi product, the purpose of which is to enable mobile application developers to be always aware of the problems of their users, and the last one is to be happy because they have been heard. In short, this is Getsatisfaction & UserVoice , but for mobile applications and private communities.
And I would like to share with you (not) a lot, how alone on a bare bootstrap I created a product. I would also like to discuss the topic of such systems, and the most important thing is to find among you my first, most difficult, most capricious, but most beloved clients! Free and without SMS.
Before going directly to the product, I would like to tell you a little about what was behind it.
My name is Roman Nikitin ( facebook , twitter ) and I, like most of you, are a geek, a techie, a programmer (mostly C #, asp.net) and a fan of good science fiction.
A couple of years ago I plunged into a thing called “start-ups” and from programmers I was immediately elevated to the rank of technical directors with the functions of Team Lead, PM, Scrum Master-all-rounder and with all the ensuing problems and consequences.
We then worked on the ePythia project (this is such a contextual planner that takes into account your location for the tasks) and went through at least 7 circles of hell. But today is not about that.
In our work on the project, we tried to use technology from Lean Startup and Customer Development , which led us to believe that we need a good feedback channel for users, and most importantly, a “mobile” one, since the main product is a mobile application.
And in the end, we formed the requirements for this kind of product:
')
Finding a system that meets 100% of all these requirements has proven to be an impossible task. UserVoice & Getsatisfaction were the closest, but their focus on marketers and offline brands (such as Tide), in the appendage to the price of $ 59 - $ 99 and the lack of necessary features in the free version, we were scared away.
As a result, we blocked sending a message to the mail from the application and postponed the question until better times. But the thought has already lodged in my head - why is there nothing else like that, but at first glance the system does not look so complicated to develop?
And in February 2012, I had a little time, and another Harvest loomed ahead (a startup event for the weekend, like StartupWeekend in the west), and Mobile HackDay was planned after it (oh, sorry for canceling). And the idea still did not give me rest.
For a couple of weeks I actively asked all the familiar developers / executives / and anyone who is in any way connected with mobile applications, is this product interesting?
Many thanks to all who participated for criticism, advice and interest. This strengthened me in the thought that we must act.
And I decided to experiment on certain conditions:
A week of hard programming 18 hours a day after six months of work away from programming is great.
I managed to get to Harvest, made a short pitch, but ... I knew that there were almost no developers going to Harvest , but that there were people very far from product development - I did not expect. Only about 3 people from the audience turned out to be familiar with Copiny / UserVoice / Getsatisfaction. But, probably, my pitch was too technical and difficult after a sleepless night :)
Then unfortunately, Mobile HackDay was canceled, which made it impossible to test the product on the target audience.
Then about 80% of the project was done. Lapping the remaining 20% ​​took up all the time until today. As usual, the most difficult thing at this stage is to suppress the desire to rewrite everything, refactor, search for something from freshly released technologies. I hardly force myself to bring it all into the task manager for the future :)
Modern technologies really allow to work wonders.
Since I have been developing for .Net for many years, I decided not to experiment on any Ruby & Python, but to use what I already know well.
Separately, the question arose how to maximize mobile platforms with minimum effort. The most logical was the answer - html5 + native wrapper.
And so, the project can be divided into:
If classified by technology, it turns out like this:
In general, from completely unfamiliar technologies there were only mobile SDKs, but the minimum code was planned on them.
From all this, the iOS SDK is currently being finalized.
And in a week of prototyping, I managed to do almost the entire web and the SDK for Windows Phone, as the closest platform to my language.
I also decided to follow the open path and all the SDKs are provided as source codes and are posted on github: http://github.com/inventarium - which, I hope, will increase the credibility of the developers.
I didn’t have much money for the beginning of the project, I didn’t want to think about investments, and the project should be done - it means that you need to find a way to do it for free.
Contrary to popular belief, “free” is not always open-source technologies like php, ruby, java, python. In the camp of Microsoft-developers, you can also find ways. So:
Total we get 1200 rubles of expenses and a lot of time spent. Not bad!
I recall that at the very beginning of the article I outlined the main criteria that were needed from such a system.
Based on them, I refused the web widget, the community community pages (Tide, sorry) and much more. Something of this may well appear sooner or later, and it will depend on you, my future favorite clients.
Also, after viewing the pricing policies of competitors, I decided to simplify this aspect. I do not want to enter a multi-level line of tariffs and no trial accounts. The system is fully functional, you can use as long as you want, until the number of your users has exceeded 10,000, then you have to pay $ 49 per month.
Those. pure freemium .
Since I determined that in my clients I first of all want to see young and fast-growing startups, then these figures and such a policy are just what we need. This allows you to immediately use the right tool and not spend money already missing.
In general, pay later when you get rich :)
Just like in the textbook - I first of all made the perfect product for myself, and now I am ready to refine it for others.
For a visual demonstration, I made a smart interactive demo page: app.inventarium.mobi/demo
From the very beginning, I perfectly understood how to make this product, how to use it and who will use it about. Therefore, various marketers, marketers, racketeers and other pr-people fell away at this stage, I don’t trust designers-cofounders, and those who could really come in handy are still developers, but all my acquaintances were busy at that moment.
I will add that if you have a task - to get into any accelerator, incubator or start-up contest - then you need a team. Desirable enough motley. Singles practically do not take.
In other cases - it is necessary to look as necessary.
Whose help is really invaluable to me is Nikolay Mikhailovsky, who in this project acts as my consultant / advisor (if in the West, then adviser or mentor).
Well, I would also like to say a big thank you to my future wife, who all this time not only listened to me, but also helped with advice, edited my Russian texts, helped with translations into English, cooked delicious dinners and generally tolerated it all :)
And then you need to develop the product. Of course, in my head there is a rough plan for the near future:
What of this and in what sequence will be implemented will depend only on you, my clients. But maybe I still do not fully see your needs and you need something else?
Time will tell.
Yes, the product still lacks a lot and there is only a bare empty new building, but this adds value. Me and you - we - have a good chance to make the product as our business requires.
Therefore, most of all I want to hear from you criticism, preferably constructive, suggestions, implementation reports and any other useful information.
If you like the idea of ​​a product, be sure to try it out and email me about your impressions.
In turn, I promise all my first customers lifetime free accounts and beautiful T-shirts when I get rich :)
Write me a mail (roma@inventarium.mobi), facebook (fb.me/rnikitin), twitter (@rnikitin), skype (neu.romantic), leave tickets on github github.com/inventarium , join the group on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/inventarium.support.ru/), call the cellular - in general, in any convenient way.
If you liked the project or liked the article or something else like it, feel free to go to my profile and click on +, this will allow me to add this topic to the hub "I PR" and maybe it will see even more people interested in the product! Thank!
May the Force be with you!
Links to the topic:
And I would like to share with you (not) a lot, how alone on a bare bootstrap I created a product. I would also like to discuss the topic of such systems, and the most important thing is to find among you my first, most difficult, most capricious, but most beloved clients! Free and without SMS.
Prehistory
Before going directly to the product, I would like to tell you a little about what was behind it.
My name is Roman Nikitin ( facebook , twitter ) and I, like most of you, are a geek, a techie, a programmer (mostly C #, asp.net) and a fan of good science fiction.
A couple of years ago I plunged into a thing called “start-ups” and from programmers I was immediately elevated to the rank of technical directors with the functions of Team Lead, PM, Scrum Master-all-rounder and with all the ensuing problems and consequences.
We then worked on the ePythia project (this is such a contextual planner that takes into account your location for the tasks) and went through at least 7 circles of hell. But today is not about that.
In our work on the project, we tried to use technology from Lean Startup and Customer Development , which led us to believe that we need a good feedback channel for users, and most importantly, a “mobile” one, since the main product is a mobile application.
And in the end, we formed the requirements for this kind of product:
- Mobile application support - in perspective, across platforms
- Work is always inside the widget without the need to go to an external resource, easy return to the application context (it is believed that half of the users do not return)
- The lack of dual authorization, he is Single Sign On (they say half of the users, seeing the requirement to enter a username and password, immediately give up the idea of ​​writing something - and we wanted to hear everything)
- The minimum price, and ideally, the first time is free (not trial in 30 days, but something more)
')
Finding a system that meets 100% of all these requirements has proven to be an impossible task. UserVoice & Getsatisfaction were the closest, but their focus on marketers and offline brands (such as Tide), in the appendage to the price of $ 59 - $ 99 and the lack of necessary features in the free version, we were scared away.
As a result, we blocked sending a message to the mail from the application and postponed the question until better times. But the thought has already lodged in my head - why is there nothing else like that, but at first glance the system does not look so complicated to develop?
And in February 2012, I had a little time, and another Harvest loomed ahead (a startup event for the weekend, like StartupWeekend in the west), and Mobile HackDay was planned after it (oh, sorry for canceling). And the idea still did not give me rest.
For a couple of weeks I actively asked all the familiar developers / executives / and anyone who is in any way connected with mobile applications, is this product interesting?
Many thanks to all who participated for criticism, advice and interest. This strengthened me in the thought that we must act.
And I decided to experiment on certain conditions:
- full-featured prototype for the week
- bootstrapping, i.e. non-investment and self-development
- minimum team, or rather do everything as much as possible
A week of hard programming 18 hours a day after six months of work away from programming is great.
I managed to get to Harvest, made a short pitch, but ... I knew that there were almost no developers going to Harvest , but that there were people very far from product development - I did not expect. Only about 3 people from the audience turned out to be familiar with Copiny / UserVoice / Getsatisfaction. But, probably, my pitch was too technical and difficult after a sleepless night :)
Then unfortunately, Mobile HackDay was canceled, which made it impossible to test the product on the target audience.
Then about 80% of the project was done. Lapping the remaining 20% ​​took up all the time until today. As usual, the most difficult thing at this stage is to suppress the desire to rewrite everything, refactor, search for something from freshly released technologies. I hardly force myself to bring it all into the task manager for the future :)
Technical details
Modern technologies really allow to work wonders.
Since I have been developing for .Net for many years, I decided not to experiment on any Ruby & Python, but to use what I already know well.
Separately, the question arose how to maximize mobile platforms with minimum effort. The most logical was the answer - html5 + native wrapper.
And so, the project can be divided into:
- backend website
- web application - panel for community moderators and developers
- html5 mobile web application for embedding in phones
- shell for iOS, Android, Windows Phone
If classified by technology, it turns out like this:
- all 3 websites are based on asp.net MVC 4
- Mobile site built on jQuery Mobile + Cordova (ex-PhoneGap is now used only to intercept the “back” button)
- Orchard CMS as the main page
- Of course, Android SDK (2.3), Windows Phone SDK, iOS SDK
In general, from completely unfamiliar technologies there were only mobile SDKs, but the minimum code was planned on them.
From all this, the iOS SDK is currently being finalized.
And in a week of prototyping, I managed to do almost the entire web and the SDK for Windows Phone, as the closest platform to my language.
I also decided to follow the open path and all the SDKs are provided as source codes and are posted on github: http://github.com/inventarium - which, I hope, will increase the credibility of the developers.
Expenses
I didn’t have much money for the beginning of the project, I didn’t want to think about investments, and the project should be done - it means that you need to find a way to do it for free.
Contrary to popular belief, “free” is not always open-source technologies like php, ruby, java, python. In the camp of Microsoft-developers, you can also find ways. So:
- Tools = 0 rub.
We register in the Microsoft Bizspark program and get all the software and tools absolutely free (you can also use express-versions of the products) - Hosting = 0 rub.
Again, MSDN Subscription or Bizspark allows you to get a great discount - see the details here . - Design ~ 1000r , the price of 2 pizzas in Papa Johns and bottles of wine.
The site design at this stage was not in the very first place, standard themes and minimalism principles were used to the maximum (looking at the new site basecamp.com, I understand that I did not lose :)). For the design of the application, I went to visit a familiar designer, having bought 2 pizzas and a bottle of wine - together in 2 hours we sketched out approximate layouts. - Domain = 200 rubles.
GoDaddy always holds all kinds of promotions and sales, so the domain is really inexpensive. - SSL certificate = 0 rub.
I would be pleased to invite a syncer user to a beer for a tip to the startssl.com article
Total we get 1200 rubles of expenses and a lot of time spent. Not bad!
Product
I recall that at the very beginning of the article I outlined the main criteria that were needed from such a system.
Based on them, I refused the web widget, the community community pages (Tide, sorry) and much more. Something of this may well appear sooner or later, and it will depend on you, my future favorite clients.
Also, after viewing the pricing policies of competitors, I decided to simplify this aspect. I do not want to enter a multi-level line of tariffs and no trial accounts. The system is fully functional, you can use as long as you want, until the number of your users has exceeded 10,000, then you have to pay $ 49 per month.
Those. pure freemium .
Since I determined that in my clients I first of all want to see young and fast-growing startups, then these figures and such a policy are just what we need. This allows you to immediately use the right tool and not spend money already missing.
In general, pay later when you get rich :)
Just like in the textbook - I first of all made the perfect product for myself, and now I am ready to refine it for others.
For a visual demonstration, I made a smart interactive demo page: app.inventarium.mobi/demo
Team
From the very beginning, I perfectly understood how to make this product, how to use it and who will use it about. Therefore, various marketers, marketers, racketeers and other pr-people fell away at this stage, I don’t trust designers-cofounders, and those who could really come in handy are still developers, but all my acquaintances were busy at that moment.
I will add that if you have a task - to get into any accelerator, incubator or start-up contest - then you need a team. Desirable enough motley. Singles practically do not take.
In other cases - it is necessary to look as necessary.
Whose help is really invaluable to me is Nikolay Mikhailovsky, who in this project acts as my consultant / advisor (if in the West, then adviser or mentor).
Well, I would also like to say a big thank you to my future wife, who all this time not only listened to me, but also helped with advice, edited my Russian texts, helped with translations into English, cooked delicious dinners and generally tolerated it all :)
And then what?
And then you need to develop the product. Of course, in my head there is a rough plan for the near future:
- possible rejection of jQuery Mobile (still slow)
- support for themes and visual customization
- detailed analytics of user behavior
and you can still rob cows
What of this and in what sequence will be implemented will depend only on you, my clients. But maybe I still do not fully see your needs and you need something else?
Time will tell.
As a conclusion
Yes, the product still lacks a lot and there is only a bare empty new building, but this adds value. Me and you - we - have a good chance to make the product as our business requires.
Therefore, most of all I want to hear from you criticism, preferably constructive, suggestions, implementation reports and any other useful information.
If you like the idea of ​​a product, be sure to try it out and email me about your impressions.
In turn, I promise all my first customers lifetime free accounts and beautiful T-shirts when I get rich :)
Write me a mail (roma@inventarium.mobi), facebook (fb.me/rnikitin), twitter (@rnikitin), skype (neu.romantic), leave tickets on github github.com/inventarium , join the group on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/inventarium.support.ru/), call the cellular - in general, in any convenient way.
If you liked the project or liked the article or something else like it, feel free to go to my profile and click on +, this will allow me to add this topic to the hub "I PR" and maybe it will see even more people interested in the product! Thank!
May the Force be with you!
Links to the topic:
- www.inventarium.mobi - home page
- app.inventarium.mobi/demo - demo page I'm really proud of
- www.inventarium.mobi/docs - integration documentation
- facebook beta group www.facebook.com/groups/inventarium.support.ru
- Well, as well as social networks: twitter.com/inventariumMobi & fb.me/inventarium.mobi
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/147631/
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