Lean startup - luv it ^ ^

From the start flare, it was as if Assignment 3 Team 6  (members: Yuan Kai, Tuan, Qiao Liang, Chris Cai, myself) have made multiple 100-metre sprints, based on the the fast and furious to-and-from messages of listed ToDo tasks and the Tasks Done list that were accomplished - impressive team coordination under the leadership of Chris.

Over the one week or more, I was on a mission, to see if I can contribute from another perspective to the team of three coders & one designer who have labored hard and fast.

Hence, I devoured articles on the project related businesses and attended presentations (at last Sat's Tech Launch). A few words kept surfacing - Lean startup (Eric Ries), UX, Minimum Viable Product, Minimum Viable Business (Pollenizer) and Progressive User Adoption Strategy.

Last evening, I was pleasantly surprised when AWS speaker spoke about Lean Startup and even gave copies of Eric Ries' books - fabulous, I got hold of one of Eric Ries book too! And last night, I can't wait to read at least one section of Lean Startup book by Eric Ries - it provided insights on why many startups failed. For me, it's a reflection of my own failed entrepreneurial journey, and the insights glimsed were nothing short of amazing.

More importantly, it points to the direction that the startup processs could be managed objectively using Minimum Viable "--" , Lean UX, and the iterations of 3 interacting forces throughout the startup before sustainable growth is attainable: coding, users, and business sense/cents.

Much thanks to Colin, I was allowed to share my understanding of how the lean startup concept is relevant in our CS3216 context - tho' my proposed model would have looked rudimentary and the slides over wordy (apologies, attribute it to first cut fumbling lah : p).

At long last I have found the answers that I seeked: how is it that I failed my entrepreneurial pursuits time and again, and I could never seems to fathom what have I done (gone) wrong.

For once, I see the light at the end of a long journey - a new hope, a new beginning!

Luv life, luv it ^ ^

Review: Pocket App - real cool stuff

Pocket apps is great for busy people who need to accumulate a reading list of articles from the internet, own multiple platform devices (smartphone, tablets).

This app supports iOS, Android, and BlackBerry OS operating systems and for multiple computer browsers and operating systems.

Pocket holds a comfortable lead in the genre of bookmark /organiser  apps – the market share numbers is telling –Pocket has 5 million users while the next nearest competitor,  Instapaper, has 1 million users.

Judging from users’ number alone, there is great demand for personal organiser for internet readers who are flooded by the deluge of web articles.  I am certainly one of the lost sheep in the ocean of information over the internet.

Key functional features that made Pocket app a must-have include:

1.       Tag it, Read it later, and Retrieval ease

a.       For time starved knowledge workers and students, who spend hours on the internet stumbling across interesting articles, there is no risk of lost urls or articles, with it’s simple tagging function

b.      Retrieval of articles and video is simple, it has video support too.

c.       Handy pop up of articles, easy read to read as users can customise reading (nite read vs day read).

                                                               i.      However, one missing feature is the lack of pagination feature which would be great when reading lengthy article.

The ‘read it later’ and ease of retrieval makes this apps great for increasing personal productivity - no more lost urls or articles. Memorable slogan: Space Shifting, Time Shifting!

2.       Easy access: Categorised, organised

a.       Store and sort by categories using labels that users can understand

b.      Store and sort by media mode: text articles, videos, images

c.       Can sort by tag, article length, url

As a leading personal organiser app developer, the intuitive manner of classifying and tagging makes it a natural choice for the busy people with little time for learning user interface (short learning curve).

 

3.       Social sharing options

a.       As plug-in, Pocket allows app user to share copy via Twitter, Google Reader, Facebook, etc.

b.      Now, like-minded readers (or students) can form user groups to swop and share each other’s articles, videos, tags and urls.

The fact that Pocket has leverage social media users, such as Twitters and Facebook, means that we can swop and share articles, videos and while promoting communication and productive bonding. 

 Pocket is really cool stuff! Why didn’t I think of this idea?!!  Damn.