Take a look at an interesting presentation I just saw.
Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned
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Archive for the ‘Insights’ Category
“If I let users steer product decisions, the result would be a massive codebase producing a bloated, cluttered product full of features that hardly anyone used at the expense of everyday usability and polish on the features that matter. Like Microsoft Word. Or Firefox.”
Must have features in your CMS
Hi!
I’ll start in few days new project, for this project I need to develop brand new CMS that will be used for a lot of websites. This got me thinking about the basic features I need to include in order to make my life easier, so this is what I have so far:
1. BackOffice for the BackOffice
Create 2 levels of administration, 1 for the client and yourself, and the other one is for you only. In your administration level you can add some tools for yourself that make the work easier, Some of those features I’ll describe below.
2. Protected Items
This is something you can add to your administrative level. Protected Items is those content pages/catalog categories and etc that your cms work with. For example if you created a content page that acts like “Thank you for shopping in SomeShop”, and you redirect to this content page through your code you don’t want the client to delete it by mistake. You got the idea? Lock the option for the simple admin to delete these important items.
3. Modules On/Off
The CMS I have in mind contains Photo Galley, Contact Form, Content Pages, Calendar and etc. Each of these are modules that are ready to be “installed” in each of my new clients. I install for him the whole CMS I have [with those modules I listed] but enabling only those he paid for, and if suddenly he needs something else I already have – just by marking the checkbox he’ll have the new module hw wanted – already integrated with his site. And yes – this is something you put in your administrative level.
4. System Logs
I work with Ubuntu and 9 workspaces, each workspace has its own purpose. 1 of my workspaces shows the logs of the applications I working on. But getting into those logs just because the client told me he had some error in some page at some point in the day is not that fun, thats why I’m creating a page in the CMS that shows me the logs so I could see really fast and more comfortable the problem he had. And by the way – telling to the client what exactly he did that gave him this error show you have control over the product you develop – and its really impressive.
5. Duplicate Items
The basic objects management is Add/Edit/Delete of content page of catalog item. I really would like you add the “create a copy” of each of those items. I don’t have any good reason for that yet, But since I adding it to each application I’m building I finding myself actually using it and saving some time to myself.
6. System Restore
This is maybe the strongest feature I can think of. Keep track of each table in your database, and you’ll be able to get back in time with the data of your application. Create a simple table named “db_history” that contains the fields: tableName, fieldName, fieldValue, fieldNewValue and nowTime.
The names are pretty clear I guess, the nowTime is to know when the change has been made. With this basic feature you can do a lot and it will help you solve many different problems and client’s issues.
I’ll be happy to see your suggestions for features like these, feel free to post a comment!
P.S
This features can be helpful to you in any application you develop, not only CMS-type application.
“Site Maintenance”, or – How to keep getting paid after the job is done
The normal workflow as a freelancer [At least for me] is build new website [by modifying existing CMS or building new one], guide the client to use your CMS and then move on to the next project.
Lets say you client is CEO of some company, or maybe runs little lawyers office. He don’t really has the time to maintain he’s website, so he got 2 choices:
- Hire some one to add/remove/edit content in the new website [most of the time it may be son of some friend or even new employee at the office]
- Let existing employee do this job.
OR! you can offer him 3rd choice. The site maintenance service.
Site Maintenance
The “Site Maintenance” service, as I see it, meant only to keep getting paid each month. This is quite smart too – you develop this kick-ass CMS, install it and modify it so it fits your new client, then you offer him your special service – site maintenance. All you do in this service is getting content changes and modifications from your client, use your kick-ass CMS to apply them. And get paid for it.
[This service may include also SEO]
Really smart.
The client already knows you, he trusts you, you know how to work with the CMS you’ve built, then you are a natural option. You just need to sell him this service right.
There is several methods for this service to work, you can get paid each month for X dollars for SEO and Content Management, or you can get paid per-hour for the job you getting done each month.
Expand your business
This service is great for expanding you business.
Lets say you charge 250$ for maintenance service, you hire other freelancer [or if it only content management within your system then even your little brother can do this] pay him 100$ for this job you pass him each time, and your clean revenue is 150$.
Even if you don’t want to expand – this option lets you spend some more time on doing whatever you want and still get paid.
Why I don’t do it anymore
Just so you know, in the last few years I stopped on working hard in the webdev industry. The main reason is the time – I’m a soldier now, so I can only work half-day. This half day I rather spend on my projects then working on my business. Managing people can be hard. So if I build a website for a client, I guide them to use the CMS rather then maintain a site by myself. This way I can move on, working on a different projects and not being held back by my old projects.
Learn to do your thing, But never doing it
There is something I noticed about myself, that isn’t as good as you might think.
I read a lot! I read a lot about successful people, I read a lot articles about success, I read a lot about successful websites, about how they were developed.. and all in order to success on my own.
So lately, I’ve noticed that i’m not working as much as I want in order to achieve my goals, become successful and do what I’m passioned about.
Success in my opinion, is doing what I love and have passion for while making a living from it.
The Moment of truth
I can keep reading about how people started their company and what problems they had, or I can finally start my own company and perhaps make those mistakes or many other mistakes and learn from my own experience, this way my progress is much more “real”, don’t you think?
Maybe it not that smart to repeat other peoples mistakes, but the position you’ll be in is much better. You may learn from peoples mistakes while you sitting in your chair and reading, or you learn from your own mistake while you run a company and have the power to adjust to the new situation and move on with your passion.
The next few months I’ll put much more time for work then learning. At this point, I feel so ready to jump into the water then ever.
The lesson you should learn from this – maybe its not the best for you to learn how do your thing, so just do your thing.
Entrepreneur?
Hi.
I like to think of myself as an entrepreneur. Lately, I’ve been exposed to wonderful people and books that shaped my view of my life and the way I want to live them, the way I work on my projects and what motivates me.
If you are feeling lost, you don’t know if the path of entrepreneurship is really for you because maybe you can work for some firm and make $$$ and thats maybe enough for you – before committing to something please read the next books and blogs.
Gary Vaynerchuck & Crush It – Gary Vaynerchuck is amazing. really. His a successful entrepreneur, and by successful I mean He does what he loves and passioned about while making money from it. He wrote a book called “Crush It” that I read lately, and I really really recommend you to read it too. If you’re not convinced, watch this talk of his, and this interview. And really do it right now, because for the right people it can be life changing.
Getting Real by 37Signals – This book, which is available reading online for free, shows you a so much different angle for web development from what you might have known so far. The lessons learned in this book can be easily used it all sorts of startups. This book was recommended by Tim Ferris and written by 37Signals staff – which is one of the successful web development companies .
Tim Ferris – Angle investor, very intelligent and highly experienced entrepreneur. There is a lot you can learn from Tim, just follow his blog and twitter account, read his book “The 4-hour Work Week” and your mind will be blown.
As I said, those resources change the way I think about startup, about working on a project, and about life really. – I want to do what I love and enjoy, and I’ll do anything to establish it.
Udi.
Dealing with your problems
I read SitePoint’s Article about dealing with stress, and well – the method can work for every issue you have.
In order to fix a problem – you first have to know it exists and be aware of that (Step 1).
So if for instance you are shy, and you want to change it about you, you have to figure out why you’re acting shy, what triggers it. It could be low self-esteem [probably is] and then you figure out what makes you now believe in yourself.
After you figured out the problem and the cause, its time to fix it (Step 2). I believe the best way to fix a problem is just doing the right thing to matter how scared you are. If you’re afraid from public speaking – just start talking to a bunch of people. It may seem hard at first, but after a while you notice that its not such a big deal.
Remember, there is no need for psychological treatment, everyone who’s strong enough can decide to change, to act differently, and over time you just change.