turk whaat? dude its spotWurk
Ok so what's in a name really, turkload, baconcloud, turkwurk, whatever, a name is just a name, the idea, now that is what rules the roost.
Today day 2 of Startup Weekend Columbus kicked off with a flurry of activity.
Nick, Tushar, Scott and a new member of the team Adam headed full speed ahead into the biz aspects of the app, while I created some napkin sketches of potential UI ideas for the iphone and web app, along with some of Tushar's help. Jerry and Bob started breakin down the sketches and make reality and looks and feels come to life. Joe and Matt took on the backend and starting working on the brain of the app.
Our team is cooking. Its coming together. We had several AH HA moments today where we all looked at eachother noticing the same spark in each others eyes of... holy frickin shit, this thing could work.
More than just work, this concept has serious legs and serious upstart, right outa the gate potential. Its that big, its almost fricking obvious but no one has connected the dots like we have this weekend.
Every member of the team has brought something to the table to evolve the idea and make it fresh'o'licious.
We've had our debates, concepts and ideas had to kicked around the room several times, sometimes we got stuck, backed up, reworded and straightened out our ideas, BUT we have moved forward which is what this weekend is all about in my opinion, its do, not do how or do what or debate on doing, its simply the do.
I was telling the team members today that when my idea got picked it was kinda like being back in highschool, i got picked to be team lead and then stood by while 7 souls strolled up to me goin.... umm hey. We all had that initial gut twinge of will our personalities clash, can we do this, will our kickball team rock or get crushed by the seniors, we dont know but quickly we all got a read of each other and hit the ground running.
Our concept is in motion, files are being traded and its happening.
Just in thinking about insta-innovation, a concept i wanted to observe here at startup weekend, its a side project for me, how does insta-innovation occur, what can code-fests and startup weekends teach design researchers about generating ideas, avoiding negative soul wells and breaking through barriers- cause in design, you battle that every day, here at this weekend event, you dont have time to bicker, you gotta go go go go go, and go some more, so what are the attributes of these people here, what makes them go and not freeze, die, or stagnate, other than of course if you do, you die... that was a side observation i wanted to do, i'm still collecting my data, more on that later.. but i did want to mention some apps that we're using to keep team syngerized and rolling.
google docs, share data, docs etc
basecamp, organize files, to do lists, post code pieces etc
some firefox screenshot taker, taking pics of looks and feels
iphone/photoshop builder, create looks and feels
twhirl and twitter for sanity, when its not failing
prime, a research app i created at lextant to do some research for us
and of course, mechanical turk, to help us get to know an aspect of our audience
We narrowed down how it made money fast, we identifyed our customers fast, we exposed new ideas and upsells and advanced ideas fast. Its all coming together fast. What is it? Its a microtask marketplace and we're gonna leverage it via the iPhone and more.
And by the way I'm not team captain by any stretch really, I am part of the puzzle and basically the subject matter expert on turk and how a market research firm or design firm can really benefit from it. While the genesis of the idea has been in my head for a long time, spotWurk is everyones creation here and its far far beyond what my original concept was. I'm very excited about what we can make.
As a bonus for tomorrow we're considering collecting more research data to help back up some of our thoughts and concepts, thats right with real data from real people, and potentially producing a quick video of how our iphone app would work and play out as well as video of a client creator experience.... I'm debating dragging my imac in tomorrow and cranking out that video. I think we could shoot it, at least get the concept down depends on how much there is to do, and theres alot, but I'm working away tonight to analyze this data, bring in some results, and try and create as much of the "promise" language of the overall concept. Promise language is that warm fuzzy how i want feel piece. Which again will be shared, bounced off of, mutated, corrrected and remixed with the team.
Ok back to work, stay tuned and maybe you too can make a quick 3 spot.
Powered by Qumana