Lean planning
Aaah, planning! Do you know that saying "rather spend most of the time defining the problem and only a tiny fraction solving it"? The one usually attributed to Einstein (even though there’s no evidence he actually said it)?
As much as I like that idea, I usually have to force myself to think and plan a solution instead of just doing it. This helps set constraints and objectives that, in the end, also help to avoid procrastination (as much as possible, anyway).
Because I believe this project can be turned into a profitable business, I’m going to invest some time in proper product development with a lean approach.
Earlier this year, when I started to put together the ideas for this app, I also created a lean canvas (sort of a visual business plan) and "run the numbers" on a fancy spreadsheet. This gave me a clear roadmap (albeit with a lot of assumptions) that helped me decide to explore this idea further.
(For now, I pixelated the lean canvas to protect the idea. Once the app goes live, I might reveal the content.)
So today I defined a few UX personas. This will help me create more empathy with the possible users and better understand the needs that will have to be addressed in the product.
After a few good hours, ended up with 4 personas: Luigi (the chef), Sarah (the foodie), Jeff (the young dad) and the internal admins.
Next stop: epics and user stories.
If you want to learn more about the topics mentioned, I suggest you read these books: The Lean Startup and Lean UX. Optionally, to better understand the Lean Canvas, I suggest reading Business Model Generation*.
* This is a referral link for Amazon that will give me a commission, if you buy the book.