Just out of curiosity, what would you advise these people who have ideas, but aren't technically proficient, to do? Is there a correct way to approach someone? Should they prepare something before talking to you to show they are serious (maybe a short write up, or a sketch)?
Haha... I will say "mock up" from now on. Thanks! (My dragon would probably end up looking like a fire breathing cow anyway) Great advice about securing customers first. If you can't do that it's probably not worth either of your time.
I wasn't poking fun at your word choice, don't worry. I'm just sort of skeptical that product-related process documents actually add any value. Money? Customers? These are things I don't have enough of. Documents? Any idiot can write documents. Many do.
Yes. The number one, guaranteed way to get a developer's attention is to go and sell your idea. Literally. Sell the would-be product to someone and get a contract. Sure, that contract will be full of outs for the buyer, but it's still a contract.
Getting to this point is a lot of work. It means you will have thought things through. It means you will have talked to your customers. It means you probably have mocked something up. You have probably invested a small amount of cash.
But mostly it means someone will pay for it which elevates your idea from "nope - waste of time unless you give me $20k" to "ok, we may have something here".
If you want to pay market rates (cash), I'd say show up with a mockup. If you want to convince a developer to join you for equity, show up with a sale.
Some years back, a guy named Bill and his buddy contacted a company making kit computers and said "we have a BASIC interpreter we'd like to sell you". The company said "a dozen others have said the same thing; we'll pay whoever delivers one." A few weeks later, Bill & pal delivered.
Thanks for the advice. I honestly hadn't thought of securing commitments prior to developing a prototype. But it's definitely better to find out if people are willing to buy prior to investing a substantial amount, if possible.
hi frankiewarren; I was a Java/Sql/PHP/HTML programmer for several years and now I'm a senior BA. This is how I'd interact with you..
When anyone approaches me with an idea, I immediately tell them I'm not going to program it, but I'd be happy to guide them in the docs they need to successfully contract it out. We have a short sitdown chat and I walk them through vision -> target audience -> user goals -> stories -> use cases -> flowchart -> actions -> screen mockups. It's their job to write all the docs. I read them, make suggestions of what areas to look into, a minimal feature set to launch first, errors and recovery, etc. This idea development work encourages the serious people and stops the dilettantes. I get to hear new ideas (I love ideas) and I can choose which ones I'd want to be involved with.
There have been a few awesome ones, and one is being built.
My advice is:
* Think why your idea better than what's already there (or why it's easier to find, easier to use, etc)
* Practice your enthusiastic sales pitch of why it's so awesome. If you don't love it noone else will.
* Don't give up if the first 10 people don't like it. (but, consider a new idea after 30 people run away)
