Lately there's been a big decision that I haven't wanted to make because I'm building in public. In all honesty, these kinds of decisions are precisely why I've mostly built in private as it removes all the angst around making a practical decision feel like a public reversal. I fear that by thinking...
This past holiday weekend, I did something unusual. I took the whole weekend off, including the Monday holiday. That is why this post is showing up a day or two later than usual, and honestly, that is kind of the point.
When you run a small business, there's always one more thing you could be doin...
Running a business means making decisions, living with them, and occasionally realizing it’s time to revisit them. This week, that meant revisiting one of the oldest product questions: build or buy?
Buying saves you time until managing the thing you bought starts eating into the time you were tryi...
Quick Quote for Sherpa, along with several quality of life upgrades, is nearly done. I'm aiming to get a beta out the door later this week. If you're interested in participating, send me a message and I'll make sure you're included.
I’m turning my attention back to Outpost, starting with the icon...
Four weeks away from Outpost is not the story I wanted to tell. But it is where things stand. This week I was thinking about how often small businesses underestimate the hidden work behind new capabilities. A shop adds embroidery. An office hires a new employee. Sherpa adds Quick Quote. In each case...
Sometimes the product you believe in most is not the easiest product for people to understand first. I’m building Outpost partly because Sherpa has been harder to get noticed than I expected. Shop management software for decorator apparel businesses is not exactly the kind of thing people stop scrol...
I expected this week to move Outpost further forward. Instead, it became a reminder that for small independent businesses, staying on track does not always look like doing the thing you planned. Sometimes current customers and existing products are more important than work on future products.
As a...
This week felt like I got less done than planned, but the pivot was strategically correct and may even pay off twice.
With the major part of the Outpost user interface done, the next step should be fairly smooth sailing. I expected to get the data structure in place, lock down the workflow, and th...
I started this week thinking I was making progress. In reality, I was still testing assumptions. This week was a reminder that the product in your head is almost never the product reality wants.
Outpost is going to be much more database heavy than other Ministry of Bits products, so early on in th...
For years, I’ve built products in secret. Outpost will be the first one I build in public.
That is a pretty big shift for me. My default move has always been to keep my head down, build quietly, polish the edges, squash most of the bugs, and only then invite people in. It’s a comfortable way to wo...