21 Things that I learnt building Plan Lab

In the next fortnight I’ll be releasing Plan Lab online marketing plan software. I started development back in February, logging onto freelancer.com, posting a description of what I wanted to build and then choosing a developer from India to make it happen.

Along the way I’ve learnt a hell of a lot. These are the 21 most important lessons that I’ve made in development, business, entrepreneurship and project management from creating my first product.

1. Building a consultancy when you’re great at your profession is easy. Building a product isn’t.
2. Developers just want to get paid.
3. The majority of Indian’s don’t value the importance of design and the user experience.
4. If they say “it is clear” after you explain something to them, it usually isn’t.
5. If it’s a 3-month project, expect 6-9 months.
6. You’re to blame for most of the time delays.
7. Compromise on some of the little things in order to launch. Just work out what is truly little in the scheme of things.
8. They’re comfortable with building something ‘average’. Either way, they get paid and it’s probably less work than building something truly great.
9. Expect them to be great at traditional development skills. Don’t expect them to be on the cutting edge of modern standards.
10. Outsourcing development overseas still represents amazing value and it’s hard to look past it if you’re building a minimum viable product.
11. Be willing to take control of the things that truly matter.
12. Treat them with respect. You’ll get a better product, have more fun do it and you won’t be a tool.
13. Good luck getting personality out of them. I’ve drawn one laugh in 6 months of joking around with our developers.
14. Try as hard as you can to have them ‘buy in’ to what you’re creating and help them to recognise what’s truly important to your projects success.
15. You’ll have 1 or 2 headaches explaining things. Resist the temptation to bash your head against the desk. Sketch out your thoughts, explain them and show examples of similar concepts.
16. Do some forward planning and show them where you’ll be improving the product in the future. It will save a lot of headaches down the track.
17. No matter how many businesses you create, they’re all gut wrenching.
18. Building passive income is liberating.
19. Get out of the office when you’re dreaming it up. Most of my creativity came at the beach, running laps or lying by the pool.
20. Build what you would want to use yourself.
21. Creating something is fuc*ing awesome.