Sunday, May 16, 2010

Documentation

The most important part of a start up is its IP. The idea that differentiates it from other companies. It is very easy to assume that your idea is amazing. But the biggest problem is writing that on the paper.

I have been writing the product spec and it was painful initially. To write down the thoughts on paper initially was tough. I started writing down all my thoughts under different headings i need. The iteration 1 of the spec writing was difficult.
I didnt know how exactly to describe myself on paper. But then eventually i was able to write down the major product guideline. The only problem i really faced was for one part of the product where i will need to sit with some Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence guy. I know what i need as the end product but writing on paper was tough without discussing with the right person.

I actually dont really need that part of Natural Language processing. But if i dont do it then many other players will add the product i am designing to their site. They will copy my stuff. NLP will give my product an edge and thus protect the product. It would be hard for others if i give users something really cool which is hard to replicate...sounds like google.


Anyhow i was able to write the whole document and i was very happy with the result.
I kept that document intact and made a version 2 of the spec and was able to refine it so much better that now if i give that document to anyone he should be able to understand it without me talking about it.

Writing version 2 was fairly easy since i already wrote the guideline before. I was also able to remove the overlaps or sometimes add overlaps between two aspects of the product if it seemed necessary.

I still need a version 3 which will basically be with priorities in the product. I also need to look into all the social media plugins i will need to get developed. All that is not yet part of the spec. I dont think i am going to have mock ups.

I have also started working on getting co-founders. I hope to get the whole stuff going i.e getting the final blue print of product, having co-founders on board and basic code done by mid to end of July. This is going to be challenging with my day job getting very demanding (thats why just one blog post this week) but should be fun.
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