Second set of learning from the Bashfully MVP process

I was going to write about SEO and Bashfully, but is usual on software projects other things cropped up. In tandem with my day job I have mainly been thinking about maintaining delivery momentum.One of the downsides of small projects teams is the lack of capacity and time. However, the upside is focus and alignment. We manage this by:
  • Keeping a Small backlog, we're open to opportunity but don't fill a backlog for the sake of it. Each completed feature is usually an avenue to learn and build.
  • Referring to the vision and remembering YAGNI, there have been times that we have rejected ideas as they aren't core to what we are trying to achieve. And others that just aren't right yet (which we immediately discard, no clogging up the backlog!)
  • Talking before starting dev, really simple but not relying on story formats or mock-ups. We talk through what we are trying to achieve and what success looks like.
That's the good things that I have learned in this phase. The bad things come down to prioritisation and what we knew at the time. With hindsight I would have been tempted to tack on-boarding and tailoring profiles differently. But it is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. You need compelling features to get people to sign up, yet you need users to provide feedback.

After we had profile tailoring (what we are calling "lenses") I set up a limited Twitter campaign. This did increase the engagement and got us some potential users, but from the analytics I could see a drop off during the setup process. One of the factors behind not prioritising this earlier was that user research had shown wanting to do something with LinkedIn data (others were asked for, but LinkedIn was far and away the winner).

Worth bearing in mind that no matter how you ask it, people aren't going to give useful answers to setup questions. You just have to make it as easy as possible to get in. The approach we have taken now is to get the bare minimum and then allow a full profile to be built up at leisure. Also no matter how easy you think you've already made it, go one step further!

 Which brings me onto the Tweet that wins this week...



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