Update for August
I made a bunch of progress last month on the platform:
-
launched new version of the site
-
added a “learn more” page with some of my talks and a mission/vision/values statement to help tell the story
-
refactored and built out the grand data model for everything
-
created the concept of “ResourceTags” and deconstructed Projects into constituent “ProjectNeeds” coded them against the ResourceTags.
-
loaded up all brainstormed projects from all past Episodes and fleshed out necessary ProjectNeeds for each
-
made it possible for any logged-in user to claim a ProjectNeed
-
modified the profile admin so users can now specify their role, skills, programming languages and other capabilities in an elegant way via ResourceTags
-
fixed a bunch of mobile UX issues
-
launched the /projects page with ability for anyone to filter available ProjectNeeds by ResourceTag, Problem and Project
-
added ability to generate unique referral link, cookie and log who originated each signup
-
finished YCombinator Startup School and applied to their Winter 2023 cohort
Other Wins
- Finished reading Sprint and very interested to implement their 5-day process for rapidly prototyping and testing solutions to challenges. Could become a core part of the process for teams (or not…) - certainly useful formula to try implementing at the hackathon events.
Challenges
- Still need to find a technical co-founder or rapidly get to the “singularity” where Probelmattic platform itself is effectively incubated by the platform and has contributors knocking out some of the dev burden. Have been learning a lot about Bubble.io but platform dev is consuming an inordinate amount of time and blocking progress on other fronts like hunting sponsors, advancing incubated projects, PR, etc.
- Torn on whether to prioritize the “rolling challenges” model to make this a channel play and go after nomad travel programs as first channel partners vs. stay focused on just making the platform useful for people who want to come together and work on stuff without prize incentives. Ideally want to do both but need to prioritize one vs. the other.
Next Month’s Focus
Platform
The current plan is to:
- open up the platform so anyone can submit Problems, Projects, ProjectNeeds, ResourceTags, Contributions and Assets.
- create necessary workflows and automations so project owners can recruit and manage contributions
- once that’s all working, shift emphasis to making this useful to the various nomad travel organizations as “volunteering as a service” platform to coordinate their members.
- if that works then layer in the sponsor challenges, problem bounties and volunteer friends & family pledges functionality. Likely won’t get through of this in a month but aim high…
Project Success
Suspending all focus on incubated projects for sake of accelerating platform dev.
Events
Suspending LIsbon hackathon events for sake of accelerating platform dev.
Content
Suspending all podcast interviews for sake of accelerating platform dev.
The technical roadmap as always can be found here.