February 2014
instagram.com/p/kDl7aLN0vx/
The idea of “Attaboy” was for makers to share what they are working on and keeping each other motivated throughout the development process.
It was email-based and never got any attraction.
Seems familiar though, right? 🤔🚧
instagram.com/p/kDl7aLN0vx/
The idea of “Attaboy” was for makers to share what they are working on and keeping each other motivated throughout the development process.
It was email-based and never got any attraction.
Seems familiar though, right? 🤔🚧
Later that month (2014)
instagram.com/p/kvoFSdN0kN/
A mock-up for a mobile app. I figured maybe email wasn’t the right medium. I never built the app though. Didn’t have the coding skills nor market validation.
instagram.com/p/kvoFSdN0kN/
A mock-up for a mobile app. I figured maybe email wasn’t the right medium. I never built the app though. Didn’t have the coding skills nor market validation.
February 2015 (a year later)
instagram.com/p/y-oPsKN0ou/
You can’t tell from the cryptic copy in the design mock-up, but this was an iteration of the same idea.
I got it fully built, but it proved to be over-engineered and I never felt it was good enough to launch. 🤷♂️
instagram.com/p/y-oPsKN0ou/
You can’t tell from the cryptic copy in the design mock-up, but this was an iteration of the same idea.
I got it fully built, but it proved to be over-engineered and I never felt it was good enough to launch. 🤷♂️
April 2016
instagram.com/p/BDqeDR5N0hV/
A different, but related idea. What if you could share your sketches, wireframes, and mockups to get feedback on? Truly building in public.
I built it, but lost motivation pretty early on so I never launched it. Repeating theme. 😂
instagram.com/p/BDqeDR5N0hV/
A different, but related idea. What if you could share your sketches, wireframes, and mockups to get feedback on? Truly building in public.
I built it, but lost motivation pretty early on so I never launched it. Repeating theme. 😂
September 2017 (a few days later)
People start sharing their completed tasks, so I built a bot and simple website. I renamed the chat and WIP is born.
People start sharing their completed tasks, so I built a bot and simple website. I renamed the chat and WIP is born.
Today
WIP is helping hundreds of makers achieve their goals of building profitable businesses, is doing a few thousand dollars in monthly recurring revenue, and is distributing the best memes in town. #humblebrag
WIP is helping hundreds of makers achieve their goals of building profitable businesses, is doing a few thousand dollars in monthly recurring revenue, and is distributing the best memes in town. #humblebrag
( FWIW, I only included a selection of prototypes, sketches, and related products. I actually tried many more approaches such as changelog.co and others. )
Related things I made that lead to WIP:
Back in the days before Slack was a thing I experimented with a $7/mo chat community on 37signals’ Campfire teamchat service.
While there was some interest, it proved difficult getting to critical mass which is crucial for real-time chat.
Back in the days before Slack was a thing I experimented with a $7/mo chat community on 37signals’ Campfire teamchat service.
While there was some interest, it proved difficult getting to critical mass which is crucial for real-time chat.
When Slack came around a few years later I didn’t think to try again. It didn’t work the first time, so why would this time be different?
I was wrong.
Slack communities like @nomadlist and @startupfndtn proved very popular.
Oops. Missed the boat on that one.
I was wrong.
Slack communities like @nomadlist and @startupfndtn proved very popular.
Oops. Missed the boat on that one.
Another thing that influenced WIP is a quick prototype I made for Telegram. It was a to record short podcasts through the chat app.
I was able to use that codebase as a starting point for WIP. As it already had the Telegram/profiles integration I needed.
I was able to use that codebase as a starting point for WIP. As it already had the Telegram/profiles integration I needed.
If it wasn’t for that codebase I might not have bothered creating that initial WIP prototype.
Lessons learned:
Just because your idea doesn’t work right now in its current form doesn’t mean it won’t work later in perhaps a slightly different form.
Even if a product doesn’t work out, you can still gain insights that will help inform your next product.
Some of the hardest yet most important insights to gain are insights into customer needs and behavior.
You will only get these if you actually ship the damn product.
You will only get these if you actually ship the damn product.
For the reasons above it makes sense keeping the product scope small early on.
(I now I’m like a broken record on this, but it’s so important it bears repeating.)
(I now I’m like a broken record on this, but it’s so important it bears repeating.)
Managing your own psychology is crucial as well. Know the things that motivate, scare, & bore you.
My pitfall is over-engineering & running out of motivation before the product is ready to ship.
Solution: smaller scope + accept seeming ignorant to obvious product shortcomings.
My pitfall is over-engineering & running out of motivation before the product is ready to ship.
Solution: smaller scope + accept seeming ignorant to obvious product shortcomings.
It’s 1am, I’m eating McDonald’s delivery, and making tons of grammar errors.
Signing out.
Signing out.
