Dan Pallotta has written a great blog on "misfit" entrepreneurs who see a different world and try to do something about it. http://blogs.hbr.org/pallotta/2010/07/misfit-entrepreneurs.html
Obviously it feels good to reads blogs like these to provide relief to the suffering (ego) :-)
Today we complete two years of the Web Notes experiment. After dabbling with solutions for a while we finally "pivoted" to the products model because that is what our calling is.
Our goal is to provide "usable" enterprise class systems at low prices. We also want to make it open source and provide unbeatable value to customers.
Sure, we have problems, but we will fix a problem every day, until the product becomes ready to use by pragmatic mainstream customers. And we are getting there. Slowly but surely.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Major Release this August
We are very excited as we prepare for our first major upgrade after the launch. The upgrade is planned for 1st August if we are able to get things right.
In this release, we further push the barriers of the ERP by including social networking features. A company is also a social organization along with being a commerical one. We want our users to be able make social relationships in the company, communicate in familiar ways and share information using our social networking features.
We are also planning is to throw open our powerful customization tools to the users. In the first release, we restricted the customization to ensure ease of setup but with more and more customers demanding it, we are planning to throw all the settings open.
We also have learnt from our your feedback on making the setup process simpler, so we are going to completely re-design our setup tools. We studied other apps such as Salesforce.com, Zoho and Freshbooks to understand the best practices in each of them. We will now bring all setup under one page so that you know where to go when you setup the system.
Along with this we will also release numerous patches and fixes and also launch a brand new Maintenance Module. We are also aware of the quality issues many of you have reported. We as an organization have discussed this extensively and will include more and more ways to release with testing as many scenarios as we can.
Cheers
In this release, we further push the barriers of the ERP by including social networking features. A company is also a social organization along with being a commerical one. We want our users to be able make social relationships in the company, communicate in familiar ways and share information using our social networking features.
We are also planning is to throw open our powerful customization tools to the users. In the first release, we restricted the customization to ensure ease of setup but with more and more customers demanding it, we are planning to throw all the settings open.
We also have learnt from our your feedback on making the setup process simpler, so we are going to completely re-design our setup tools. We studied other apps such as Salesforce.com, Zoho and Freshbooks to understand the best practices in each of them. We will now bring all setup under one page so that you know where to go when you setup the system.
Along with this we will also release numerous patches and fixes and also launch a brand new Maintenance Module. We are also aware of the quality issues many of you have reported. We as an organization have discussed this extensively and will include more and more ways to release with testing as many scenarios as we can.
Cheers
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Building a "beautiful" product
This is again a "pivotal" stage for the company. We have built a certain product, persistently over years and is there for everyone to see. While early adopters take their time, we keep on the cycle of continuous improvement and people start recommending our product, there is bound to be a lull in strategy. Not being aware how long this phase will last, there must be an integrating theme to the phase.
This is a phase in which our progress will no longer be measured by the number of features we produce (we are already past that) or how much revenue we generate (we are still to get there).
The target for this phase should be - to build a "beautiful" product. To get a sense of progress, there must be a measurable. How do we measure this?
Lets break this up:
This is a phase in which our progress will no longer be measured by the number of features we produce (we are already past that) or how much revenue we generate (we are still to get there).
The target for this phase should be - to build a "beautiful" product. To get a sense of progress, there must be a measurable. How do we measure this?
Lets break this up:
- The product must be easy to understand - headings, labels, actions and exit must be clearly marked
- The product must be consistent - similar paradigms to be used throughout
- The product must look familiar in terms of other applications that the users might be using
- The product must be stable
- Messages must be clear and suggestions must be given if there are stoppages
- There must be "sign-posts" (suggestions) for users to reach a particular target. We can put in "scenarios" for users to understand the product.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Starting a new blog
Usually I write on our company website but I am starting to write here so that our friends in Google can index better! Will write on technology and startups.
As Steve Blank rightly puts it, a startup is a search for a business model. Hence the tendency by startup entrepreneurs to think a lot about their strategy and business model. So I hope this blogs helps others as much as it will help me in straightening out my thoughts!
As Steve Blank rightly puts it, a startup is a search for a business model. Hence the tendency by startup entrepreneurs to think a lot about their strategy and business model. So I hope this blogs helps others as much as it will help me in straightening out my thoughts!
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