Wow, I've almost lost count of how many weeks it has been since we started building our app (photo unrelated... mostly). It literally started from scratch 4 weeks ago, and tomorrow we are already ready for our second beta release. This isn't a pure web app, mind you, it's an iPhone app. We got backend, frontend, api's, stat servers, natural language processing processes, and more, all playing nicely in 3 weeks, and now 4 weeks ready for another release. On top of all of that, we have all the nitty gritty business details: seed funding, design work, branding work, marketing strategies, PR relationship building, shmoozing, twittering, and blogging. It all really gets complicated, and it's amazing how we're getting everything in line and organized.
This week was dedicated to improving our first release, w hich I'd like to call our alpha. After using the app ourselves along with 20 or so beta testers, we've really gotten to know how our idea works in real life. An idea and a finished product are basically two completely different things. What you think your product will be, is actually not how it will ever feel once materialized. Focuses shift, things are stripped out, and the core features are redefined and polished. Every release is going to throw curveballs at you, you just have to be ready for it. All the features and ideas you thought were table stakes might just be superfluous things that really don't make your app cool.
With FanPulse, we've found that, sure, there's about a hundred different things people would love in the app, but does that make them more likely to open up the app again? Nope. What do they like the most, what do they use the app for? That's what we need to focus on. If there's an outrageous amount of demand for a feature that's outside the scope of our core, even more so than what the awesome feature the app is centered around, maybe it's time to look at another product that has been unearthed by your previous idea. Yes that could happen, but don't force it.
Tomorrow we're releasing a set of features that is a continuation of our efforts to polish and make our core functionality work even better. I still regard the next release as an alpha, as it's still testing out our earliest ideas. I'm not against saying that it's not perfect or ready for the public yet, because it will be soon, and releasing small and often will pay off big time.
If you're not in our releases yet, and want to get in on this next beta, send an email to beta@wethefan.com with your name and email. If you have an iPhone and know how to get your UDID, send that too! We'll get you in for tomorrow.
And if you're all wondering what the heck the picture is above, it is of a Porcelain Crab. The Neopetrolisthes ohshimai is not actually a true crab, but a squat lobster evolved into what is more or less a crab looking thing. I think this evolution is called carcinisation. Basically shows how crabs might have evolved from lobsters due to environmental factors (hiding under rocks for example).
Anyways, these guys are cool! They use their claws to fend off predators or in my case a few harmless snails and fish, but use what's called setae to catch food. Setae are basically a pair of arms that stretch out from underneath them that have "nets" in them. They catch particles (planktonic food) and shove them into their mouths:
I currently have a mated pair in my tank, they sort of just hang out together and grab stuff out of the water column. I doubt I'd be able to keep any of their offspring successfully, but it's fun having them as a pair nevertheless.
