It has been more than a year since I posted here and it is already the end of 2018. So how was my year 2018? This is not a detailed overview of the year like others write. But more like a short blog post of what happened in the past 1 year and what I am going to do next.
Quit working as full-time employee
Professionally, a lot changed. I quit my job early in the year and joined another company, and quit that too in a few months. But, why?
I have mostly worked with early-stage startups. I have always loved working on products which are in it’s infancy, where there is a certain uncertainty in what needs to be built. The challenges in building new features for a product are slightly different and interesting than maintaining an existing product and making sure nothing breaks.
When I realized that my contributions to the team wouldn’t match my skill set, I decided to quit. I am happy that I quit at the right moment – before I became too involved with the team.
I am currently back to consulting to startups, helping them to build MVPs and products. And I am not going to just consult for other companies. I have also decided to build my own product(s).
Built ChangeLog.host
One such product that I built was ChangeLog.host – a site where you can write your product’s changelogs/release notes. This is useful for product managers who want to keep their users updated about the newest features and bug fixes in the products.
I started building it as part of a 24 hours online hackathon challenge and I did complete the basic MVP level of features in 24 hours. But instead of continued development in a vacuum, I talked to potential customers.
I asked them why they would use such a service and why they wouldn’t use it. And what features are important for them to consider using this. I still am in the process of talking to others and understanding the users. Depending upon the conversations, I would either continue with the development or maybe start building other products.
I also want to release some MicroProducts – smaller products that are useful to a select few people. My goal in building such products is to not worry about the technical stuff, but rather concentrate on the marketing, growth, and sales side of running a business. I will make sure to blog about these “experiments”.
Personal Stuff
On the personal side, I was able to experiment with the Keto diet and was successful in reducing some weight (almost 10%). But I didn’t stick to it and ended up going back to my old weight. At least I found that it does work best and maybe I would try to stick to it more regularly in the next year.
2019?
I don’t want to write specific goals for the coming year. But this is going to be the overall theme.
- Building Products and MicroProducts (and this means not just software).
- Concentrate on the non-technical side of a business and blog about my experiments.
- Consulting for other startups on the side.
- Spend more time with my kid (now that I am working remotely, I have the luxury).
- Be healthier.