I wanted to share some of my emotions as I gear up for tomorrow’s soft launch of S2N.
It is going to be very small, as I want people who have been close to my journey to provide feedback. I think my biggest anxiety comes from the fact that I am not where I want to be in terms of completion. On the other hand, I know it is important to honour deadlines, and the truth of the matter is that one is never really ready.
There are some obvious benefits to going live. The most obvious is feedback from users who are likely to pay for the service. Feedback is crucial to making sure that you are serving your target market with what they want, not just what you want.
One of the challenges I have faced in the build-up is that I am a one-man show. This is a strength and a weakness. While it has slowed me down as there is so much one person can do in a day, it has also given me the opportunity to get close to every facet of the data and the software used to calculate and present the data and my views.
Another challenge is that I am a tinkerer. I never seem to like out-of-the-box solutions. I am not bragging here, but because I have a lot of experience, I can see a few steps ahead of what I would like to have. While out-of-the-box solutions get you going quickly, they tend to hit roadblocks when you want to add a certain amount of sophistication.
The product I have in mind is not vanilla, I have never gone for vanilla. I am a creative person and like to sprinkle things with innovation and depth. That means I have taken on the task of building things with slightly more complexity and the associated learning curve that comes with customisation. I say this to encourage you to push through what might seem like a basic bug or missing part. Please give me feedback and enjoy the ride towards something very powerful and beneficial. Having extra eyes and perspectives will be invaluable to me and the platform.
Let me share just one example of what I am saying. To get a newsletter off the ground, you can simply start a Substack, which many successful newsletter services have done. However, the Substack blog portal is very limited in what you can do. I therefore chose to work with WordPress, which is by far the most versatile and well-developed framework, and then use different services and plugins to get the most out of the platform to meet my vision. Substack or similar services take away the hassle of design integrations. Email lists and the pushing of content to the appropriate list. Payments, trials, and many other important steps in the newsletter service industry.
Everything in life comes with a trade-off. I have always followed my truth, which is what I am doing with S2N, so with that pep talk to you and myself, I move on and prepare for the soft launch tomorrow