(Part 1; I am not your Guru, is here.)
Lets begin with me saying Thank you, for your patience:
Thank you.
I know there was a delay between the idea of documenting this and now but here we go.
So, what is it?
A simple, local, affordable markdown editor.
Wait, what?
Yeah, so the idea actually changed between then and now. The original idea was a digital site sign in board. I still think I’ll do that but not today.
While I have been focusing on getting Kanban Ink off the ground, Easy Writer had a growth spurt (that’s pretty much how it happens, the fire is always behind you!).
That, and the fact that I was using Easy Writer myself to write this series, reminded me of the feedback I got after it’s release; In short people loved it (it was number 5 on Product Hunt for the day when released!) however there was also a demand for a non-cloud version with instant start up (no sign in, no sync, etc).
I considered adapting Easy Writer to allow for both options, but the cloud back-end is a rather cornerstone part of how it works and changing it enough to accommodate this (and the pricing model) is something I have decided strongly against.
In the end, this is a different demographic.
And THAT little revelation is part 1 for me. That’s the formative idea that will be the building block for every question from here.
So last night I sat down with my trusty Dell tablet and stylus and outlined that concept.
Now, I am going to mention something here; at this point you should be doing your research into the market. Is it real? Do they see it the way you do? Do you have the required knowledge?
But as I am going through this process regardless, let’s pretend that is all a green light.
Following this step, I find it useful to do an honest audit of your skill set. Do you know the technologies needed? For the ones you do not, how much of a stretch are they and do you need to do anything first?
When I find a skill missing; I tend to explore that as a side project of its own. If, for instance, you needed Windows Ink, I can recommend making something (almost) trivial with it first so you know it behaves and achieves what you need and you gain some experience.
Next; UI. Let’s face it, we can make anything now days. From Augmented reality to web and native apps technology has removed much of the “Can I?” and replaced it with “Should I?” and, perhaps as importantly, “How should I?”
So again out comes the stylus and Microsoft OneNote.
(Some of you may be asking at this point, why OneNote and not Kanban Ink? Well, use the best tool at your disposal for the task. Kanban is for execution. I use OneNote as an idea canvas. This comes before Kanban. I have lots of ideas….)
Not complex, is it. That tells me that I am missing more of the idea. What are the buttons? Where’s the revenue model? etc.
That’ll come next…
Thanks for joining me for part 2!
Rob.