How to blow their mind
If this post ends somewhere mid-sentence it’s because I have literally melted while typing it. I’m currently in Tucson, Arizona, after a few weeks of traveling around the US 🇺🇸. Let’s just say it was a warm welcome!
My biggest realization in the past few weeks has been this: I need to blow some minds. Context:
WP Pusher (my other product) has a magic feel to it. It’s very easy to get started with and it does a lot of “secret” stuff behind the scenes which feels kind of magical. It’s happened a few times that people have gone on Twitter and used the hashtag #mindblown after trying it for the first time. Heck, Justin Jackson even recorded a YouTube video after tweeting about it.
The current, and very early, version of Branch is pretty good. It does some really cool stuff, but it’s not blowing any minds yet. Now that I have a pretty basic version, it’s time to start working on something that will make people say “wow” and talk about the product. My best idea at the moment is to add some basic predefined test steps that allows you to get started with testing your WordPress projects with just a click or two (I know, you are thinking “wow” right now, aren’t you?).
A few weeks ago at MicroConf I got to tell a lot of people about Branch. Every time I pitched the product, I updated my pitch a little bit (without noticing) based on the feedback I got previously. In the end, pretty much most of my pitch was about how easy it would be to test WordPress code before and after deployments with Branch. That seemed to be a feature that really resonated with people. For a lot of WordPress developers, if I can help them get some basic tests up and running, I’m helping them do something they currently don’t know how to do. If that’s available with just a few clicks, I think it will be pretty “mind blowing” to a lot of people.
What did the Maker do #
Besides bug fixes and maintenance, the Maker didn’t do much in the past few weeks. I’ve been on the road for MicroConf and travels around the US with my fiancé. Yesterday I wrote a short blog post about who Branch is for, after a call I had with a large agency.
What did the Manager do #
The Manager has been busy in the past few weeks, with MicroConf and talking to users. While on the road, I didn’t have a lot of time to sit down and code, but I did spend a lot of time on planning and thinking about the future. After MicroConf, and all the great conversations I had there, I have better clarity on what needs to be done in the coming weeks and months.
Speaking of MicroConf, I want to give a huge shoutout to Phil Derksen, who organized a great WordPress meetup at MicroConf. I had some great conversations with other WordPress people there that I’m excited to follow up on.
👊