#001 - Tiny steps

weekly 1005 words 5 minutes

The first week after the announcement of building in public and going live with the first landing page for DevOps Metrics. I can’t believe it was already one week ago. So much has happened since then. So, let’s jump right into the weekly. I still try to find a suitable format for this.

Landing page is live

I went live with the landing page of DevOps Metrics. The first email sign-ups come in from interested persons. 🤩 I am aware that this is no validation. But it feels nice and keeps me motivated. Super cool; I have a first video call with an interested engineering manager next week.

Another page went live: this one. 🤓 Now I need to show myself and you that I get into the grind of pushing out weekly updates. It is not so much about the updates for me but more about making weekly progress on DevOps Metrics (and other projects). For you, it is hopefully entertaining to see how someone builds a SaaS product; and will fail with 90% probability. 😉

Something I need to learn since 32 years: patience. I get way too easily frustrated when it takes me too much time to do something. In this case, I was surprised how long it took me to learn Hugo and Tailwind to build the landing page and this blog. And not to forget, get the setup of the frontend web application out of the ground.

Everyone tells you: building a business/product is a long-term game. It is easy to admit it, but to act accordingly is hard. Appreciate the tiny steps.

Oh, I think I made a mistake - at least short-term. I wanted to set up Webpack 5 on my own to learn how this tool works. It took me far too long. That’s not good for a solopreneur where I need to prioritize time to market over everything.

Tech stack for the frontend: React, Tailwind, Webpack 5

Is it only me who finds it funny that there is even a Webpack plugin for favicons?

I also researched how modern React apps are organized. My last React project was without the Hooks API, so I had plenty to catch up with. The outcome of this research: I apply standard modularity patterns that I utilize in back-end code. It should work out, and I found a lot of blog posts describing similar solutions. In the following weeks, I’ll publish a dedicated post about my frontend setup for DevOps Metrics.

On Twitter, I saw this tweet where Daniel explained in a thread a systematic way of implementing top-class customer service.

Here is how it goes when a customer has a question:

  • Answer customer question with a video
  • Start the video with “[customer name] asked…”
  • Send customer this video as an answer, optionally a text message
  • Then, link this video in your knowledge base with the question
  • Later, you can add an article to the knowledge base

This way, you have a chance to achieve long-term SEO growth with your customer support activities.

In the coffee kitchen, we chat about interesting and funny stuff like you would be a co-worker.

Matthias, the founder of GetTheAudience, asked me for some guidance on machine learning. We had a great exchange and brainstorming for his product. I am also a paying customer of it.

There is a pattern emerging for me. It seems I always ask the question: “How can you achieve the same without machine learning?” If there is an option, try this first. It is probably cheaper and has a faster time to market.

After Daniel’s tweet about customer support, I had to get a proper microphone. I want to jump into it or talk on podcast/youtube if there is an opportunity one day. So, I just asked on Twitter and was surprised by the support of my followers.

Long story short:

  • Dynamic microphone picks up less background noise than a condenser
  • Good microphones: Rode Podcaster, Shure SM7B, Blue Yeti
  • I try the Rode Procaster in the following days

This tweet gave me goosebumps. It reflects my learnings over the last five years; and makes me think that I am on the right track for what I want to achieve. And who am I to not like validation of my thinking for free? 😅

YOU CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT

The next goal is clear to me: get some UIs finished to communicate them on my landing page of DevOps Metrics. In general, I prefer show, not tell. The same should apply for building this business in public, I think.

I am a bit worried that my consulting gigs do not allow enough available time for me to concentrate on this week’s goals. It will be my challenge to be very disciplined in time management.

And I am so much looking forward to a video call with an interested engineering manager. Let’s see if I can practice some customer research skills that I improved recently by reading: The Mom Test. I highly recommend you this book.

See you next week.

– Felix

Hey, I'm Felix. I share my journey on bootstrapping products and service businesses. Additionally, I write about my learnings in software architecture and tech leadership that I gather during my consulting gigs.
Felix Müller
Hey, I'm Felix. I share my journey on bootstrapping products and service businesses. Additionally, I write about my learnings in software architecture and tech leadership that I gather during my consulting gigs.
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