The Daydream Blog

There is a new tradition amongst Mac developers to post a lessons-learned blog entry once they release the first version of their software. So here is mine, just a little early.

Those of us new to starting a Mac Software Business, often look to Wil Shipley for tips of the trade. Partly due to his sage advice and his clearly evident success as an independent Mac developer. Partly because his advice is the most easily available, and he is so open about his success!

Not being fresh out of University, I took Wil’s advice with a pinch of salt, but also looked to glean what I could from his WWDC student talk, various interviews and blog. From Wil, I have discovered that it is possible to invent a better mouse trap. Although I cannot find a competitor for Differencia, my other planned products have entrenched competitors. They no longer worry me, as I believe I can make a better product. I have come to appreciate that “less code is better code”. I always preferred readable, simple code. Thanks to Wil, I am no longer worried about not knowing cunning coding tricks, as I now know all about the horrors of premature optimisation, along with some of the code maintenance horrors that I was already all too familiar with. Wil’s Pimp My Code was of particular interest as he always imparts the philosophy behind the way he writes his code, which is often of more valuable than the code itself.

However I have also realised over the last year and a bit, that I am not Wil Shipley. I do not have 15+ years of Cocoa development experience. I do not have key contacts within Apple that can provide work-arounds or solutions to Cocoa bugs and performance problems. I do not know a stable of graphic designers with extensive experience of working on Mac applications. Mike Matas did not come banging on my door.

In particular, my name is not enough, on its own, to bring customers pouring in. Nor can I win an Apple Design Award for an unreleased product that only a select few beta testers and the ADA judging panel have seen. Yet.

This has not been particularly down heartening, because I felt that this was the right time for me to start a Mac software company and that I could bring a lot to the platform.

One of the things that drove me away from working for large enterprise was that they claimed that their staff were their greatest asset, whilst treating them like sheep. I have always felt that having a “Human Resources” department, rather a “Personnel Department”, was far too impersonal. The reality is that big companies do not invest in their “greatest assets”, but simply let them depreciate.

So the great thing about having your own company is that you are, in fact, the company’s greatest asset.

New developers often ask, “What product should I develop?” The common answer is to develop something that you would use yourself, and therefore have a vested interest in and have a passion for. In consultant speak; you need “Domain knowledge”. Almost every project I have ever worked on, either specifically included a reconciliation process as a deliverable, or required extensive regression testing, reconciling old and new. I have desperately wanted a reconciliation tool throughout my working life and I finally got fed up and made my own! Differencia is a product that I am really proud of and am looking forward to using myself.

A phrase I often used in the early days of my career was “Problem Exists between Keyboard and Chair”, to imply that a user with a support issue was either stupid or did not understand how the software worked. Inexperienced developers often believe that they have found a bug in the underlying system, when the reality is that 99% of the time, the problem lies in their own code. Similarly even experienced IT staff often assume the problem lies with their users when it comes to support issues, when usually the app should be improved to be less confusing. I covered this in depth in an earlier post.

There are other qualities I believe that I bring to the business. An ability to learn quickly, strong technically and strong project management skills. I am particularly proud that I have always been able to translate from a user perspective to a technical perspective, without confusing a user with technical details. Being able to talk in “the user’s language”, that many technical people find difficult.

I have also learnt a lot over the last year or so. How to exploit understanding a user’s perspective, to improve user interaction design. How to form partnerships for web and graphics design, where my abilities and experience are lacking. The differences between project managing an upgrade with large project team, and a new development with a single resource.

So the lesson for new independent Mac developers? I am not Wil Shipley, neither are you. However I am Sanjay Samani, and I have a lot to offer.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Posted in Lessons and is tagged with PEBKAC
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