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| <h2 id="thefloodingbasementproblem">The Flooding Basement Problem</h2> | |
| <p><strong>An analogy:</strong> Running a business is like being in a basement with a leaky water main<a href="#fn:1" id="fnref:1" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[1]</a>. If you’re alone, you can either work on the water main or you can bail out water. You can’t do both at the same time, it’s physically impossible. So in the beginning I worked on the water main a little and bail out water in the meantime.</p> | |
| <p>Well, I fell into the insidious mistake of finding it easier to get better at bailing out water<a href="#fn:2" id="fnref:2" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[2]</a> rather than work on the water main<a href="#fn:3" id="fnref:3" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[3]</a>. So I chose to optimized my water bailing processes and things hummed along fine for 6 years or so<a href="#fn:4" id="fnref:4" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[4]</a>. I’m in my 8th year now, and through a series of life events over the last 18 months, I haven’t been in that basement as much to bail out water, let alone work on the water main.</p> | |
| <p><strong>What does this mean for the products?</strong> In this analogy, products are like porcelain statues in the basement, impervious to the water, but I can only be painting a statue<a href="#fn:5" id="fnref:5" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[5]</a> when the water level is low enough. Currently all my apps are “under water,” so I can’t do much until I address the flooded basement.</p> | |
| <p><strong>What am I doing about the flooded basement?</strong> I’ve hired a support person and I’m trying to bring a developer on board to help fix the water main and bail out the water, then we can start painting the statues again.</p> | |
| <p><strong>How did the basement get so flooded?</strong> Through plenty of ill conceived plans<a href="#fn:6" id="fnref:6" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[6]</a>, bad business dealing<a href="#fn:7" id="fnref:7" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[7]</a>, short sighted acts of survival<a href="#fn:8" id="fnref:8" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[8]</a>, exhaustion, and life events that have given me less time to spend in the basement.</p> | |
| <p><strong>How to avoid the basement flooding again?</strong></p> | |
| <p>Two parts:</p> | |
| <ol> | |
| <li>I need to set better expectations of what a customer is entitled to when purchasing one of my products, and what expectations I have of the customer<a href="#fn:9" id="fnref:9" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[9]</a>.</li> | |
| <li>I need help creating, maintaining, and executing well defined processes and metrics for measuring success (e.g. at what rate is the basement flooding right now?).</li> | |
| </ol> | |
| <h2 id="theplanmovingforward">The Plan Moving Forward</h2> | |
| <p><strong>Short Term:</strong> Get the flooding basement under control. I’m working with the support person, but he currently only has a thimble to bail out water with, and most of the time he’s just tossing it over his shoulder, so it’s up to me to get him pointed in the right direction to helpfully send the water out of the basement instead.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Mid Term:</strong> Add a developer with vested interest in moving these products forward. I’m working with someone now<a href="#fn:10" id="fnref:10" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[10]</a>, but he’s pretty water phobic, so even just coaxing him into the basement with water wings on has been more work than I anticipated<a href="#fn:11" id="fnref:11" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[11]</a>.</p> | |
| <p><strong>Long Term:</strong> Factor myself out of operations in the basement. Stand at the top of the basement and coordinate the efforts instead.</p> | |
| <p>Failing any of that, I’m willing to move these porcelain statues to another basement<a href="#fn:12" id="fnref:12" title="see footnote" class="footnote">[12]</a>.</p> | |
| <div class="footnotes"> | |
| <hr /> | |
| <ol> | |
| <li id="fn:1"> | |
| <p>the inflow of external demands you have reduced control over such as support, OS updates, and other expectation/costs to running a business <a href="#fnref:1" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:2"> | |
| <p>answer support quicker through canned responses <a href="#fnref:2" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:3"> | |
| <p>reduce support emails by improving documentation and imposing a web form so I get all the context without back-and-forth emails <a href="#fnref:3" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:4"> | |
| <p>while essentially being a prisoner in this basement, bailing out water <a href="#fnref:4" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:5"> | |
| <p>improving or working on the product <a href="#fnref:5" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:6"> | |
| <p>I acquired a lot of products and pursued new product ideas that didn’t prove to be market viable, yet I never cut my loses. Once I make a statue, I can’t imagine just tossing it to make room for another, and it doesn’t help when you hear from the occasional customer saying, “it may be misshapen, but I can’t imagine a world without this statue in it.” <a href="#fnref:6" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:7"> | |
| <p>I’m the type of person who couldn’t imagine going through with a deal if it didn’t mean win-win for both parties. Unfortunately, the business world prays upon idealistic people like me. <a href="#fnref:7" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:8"> | |
| <p>There was a time when just 3 of my products brought in enough money for me and 2 developers. Now I maintain 21+ products under 4 companies while sales have slid by 80%. So I’m making less money now than I was when I only maintained 3 products with 2 other developers to help! <a href="#fnref:8" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:9"> | |
| <p>subject of another article <a href="#fnref:9" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:10"> | |
| <p>he worked on one of my unreleased products <a href="#fnref:10" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:11"> | |
| <p>“Sink or swim,” that’s the mantra of business, so I don’t have much patience for people trying not to get their feet wet in this environment. <a href="#fnref:11" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| <li id="fn:12"> | |
| <p>give/sell the apps to other developer or release the source code to the community <a href="#fnref:12" title="return to article" class="reversefootnote"> ↩</a></p> | |
| </li> | |
| </ol> | |
| </div> | |
| </body></html> |
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