Build, Design, Launch an App in <40 Man Hours
written by Allan on August 05, 2009
Two weeks ago we launched LessCabinFever.com, start to finish it took less than 40 total man hours. In this blog post I'm going to tell you how we did it and why we consider this a successful product launch.
What is LessCabinFever?
LessCabinFever is a directory of laptop workers that are interested in exchanging homes for a short period of time. We call them work-vacations, a vacation from working in the same place. Basically, do you work from home? Would you like to work from another city for a week?
Why we did it.
We built this app for two reasons. (1) I want to work from somewhere else about four times a year. Some place nice, some place new. (2) It's so easy to write a blog about launching early and waiting on building that feature that seems so important. We wanted to practice what we preach.
Here's how we did it:
Budgeted time, stuck to it.
We estimated 40 total man hours to launch this project. We knew it would be tight but we wanted to push the comfort zone of the constraint. We wanted something that could be built in a weekend.
Code Base
The code base is LovdbyLess.com. With some minor tweaks, adds and mods we were able to get the app to the current state in 27 hours. LovdbyLess gave us a lot of the core features we needed. Are there other features that could have been added? Yes. Would they have made the app something more to talk about? Probably not.
Design
I purchased the logo illustration from istockphoto.com for $10. The logo took 15 minutes to create. The overall app design took 12 hours total, including writing the markup for the app. I believe "design" is hard to bid for a consultancy, many clients want collaboration and collaboration costs money because it makes the process longer. Would it have been worth it for me to create the logo by hand, taking a few more hours? I don't believe so, this logo is good enough.
Overall
We spent another couple hours testing the app and talking about the next set of features. Overall we're pleased with the app. It's not perfect, it's not bug free, but we stuck to our budget and launched something. We're excited, so far has been well received, users are talking and people are tweeting about it.
Going Forward
The app isn't on the front page of digg and we're not worried about the whole world seeing this app. A few people per day are adding their homes and we're excited. Once a few hundred listings are in the app we'll spend some more time making the app better and easier to use.
Launch is the Starting Line
We always caution our clients that launching an app is the starting line, not the finish line. We know all too well that for this app to reach people and be useful it will take time, marketing, attention and love.
Consider this a success?
I call this a success for many reasons. Working on a project with a looming deadline and then launching it on schedule is exciting. Building an app and forcing yourself to make tough decisions is a great process. Going from paper to launch in an extremely fast time is a great way for a consultancy to flex their muscles.
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Allan loves his family more than breathing. He lives in Panama City, Florida & grew up washing cars at his family's car washes. Oh and Allan hasn't worn underwear since 2004.
8 Comments
Impressive as always.!
P.S. Watch for out typos! On the website description text, fix “exchangning homes with you” to be “exchanging”
Did you need an extended license from istockphoto to use the illustration as part of your logo so you can use it on anything that gets printed for resale, like promotional materials?
I thought it costs a couple hundred dollars for that many credits, in which case, spending another hour or two on the logo so not to use stock art may have been a good idea.
I’d love to be wrong here.
You have a spelling error in your top copy: exchangning. Great idea though, look forward to seeing it grow!
Your cabin fever web site took a while to load in my browser. But it looks cool. Very sweet to have knocked it out in 40 hours.
Your cabin fever web site took a while to load in my browser. But it looks cool. Very sweet to have knocked it out in 40 hours.
You might think your logo is good enough, but what you don’t know is that for $10 istockphoto.com does not give you the exclusive rights for the illustration…. so maybe when you see your logo in somewhere else you will regret not hiring a professional designer in the first place!
You might think your logo is good enough, but what you don’t know is that for $10 istockphoto.com does not give you the exclusive rights for the illustration…. so maybe when you see your logo in somewhere else you will regret not hiring a professional designer in the first place!
You might think your logo is good enough, but what you don’t know is that for $10 istockphoto.com does not give you the exclusive rights for the illustration…. so maybe when you see your logo in somewhere else you will regret not hiring a professional designer in the first place!