photo by nomadic lass on flickr

I hate the idea that advertising/marketing is at odds with transparency, or worse, honesty. Luckily, post the old-timey charm of 19th century snake-oil panacea elixer broadsides or the mid-century big tobacco ploy to convince us that cigarettes would make us smooth yet not poisoned and dead, we live now in an era when truth in advertising is actually a reality — at least for some progressive, humane concerns.

A lot of this comes into play somewhat naturally as modern companies embrace content marketing and “pull” tactics rather than the traditional one-way broadcasting “push”. I think, also, as GenX, GenY and the younger folks, who all grew up in some degree of media-overload come to be the people making the media, they don’t necessarily want more of the same. (Some don’t seem to mind (or are in it for the money) and you can see my generational compatriots churning out creepy polar bears to tell you sugar water will make your life better at top ad agencies, but that’s another story all together.)

So, here on my wee bloggy blog (i.e., my content marketing vehicle), I’ve decided to do something a bit counter-intuitive, in that it’s quite likely to expose my business (and personal) vulnerabilities. Something, perhaps, at odds with convincing you of my “thought leadership” (ugh, can we come up for a less icky way to express that concept?).

I’m going to try to document, from the beginning, the process of building my first real web app/tech start-up project. 

A digression, with a bit of background

It was always my goal, when starting Durable, to do more than branding and design consulting. Yes, that is the bread and (vegan) butter or what’s going on here, but, since the beginning — since way, way further back than the beginning, since I was dreaming of what I wanted to do with my life when I was still a teen, I’ve wanted to run a multi-purpose creative concern. One umbrella company with all manner of magical projects, products and world-improving bits and bobs underneath.

I have a whiteboard full of projects to filter into the workflow, and scraps of paper in a zillion notebooks with other vaguer plans. There are art projects, tech projects and social change projects. It’s a lot to do, and obviously I can’t do it all at once. So, needing to start somewhere, I’ve decided to begin with something that is closest to “home” for Durable as it exists today, is ultimately utilitarian and, I think, going to be really satisfying to work on.

What the hell is it?

Right, yeah, I should tell you that. Here’s the thing: I know what I think it is, and what my assumptions are going in, but I also know what it is will change, probably a lot, and quickly.

What “it” is is a web-based app that lets you get organized about your marketing plans in a visual, intuitive way. I see the first version of this being a sort of content (or editorial) calendar with an interface which let’s you see your plans in a very graphic way and interact with them using color coding, simple icons and a drag-and-drop interface.

What’s the problem it solves? Making a content marketing plan and calendar can be daunting, tedious and very left-brain-centric (think spreadsheets and gantt charts). Some of us work better and see relationships more clearly with things laid out in front of us in a pleasing, graphical form. This app will help visual thinkers build plans and keep them organized, up-to-date and easy-to-change as needed.

You see I’m making an assumption about the audience here — that it’s people doing marketing for their own small businesses, or who are not necessarily professional marketers. The feature set is meant to simplify their process (and even offer guidance), not be a robust platform that does everything (though one could see that too… tying in to Salesforce, Basecamp, social media APIs, etc.). I don’t know yet if this is the right audience or the right feature set. But my goal is to figure that out soon.

What’s done so far and what’s next

Features: So far, I’ve sketched a flow chart and a bunch of non-detailed wireframes on paper. These are what I might want in this app were I building it for myself (and, indeed, this whole idea stems from a visualization of a marketing plan I designed and have used for my own purposes off and on — and that people always seem to connect with when they see it).

Audience: In terms of audience research I’ve run the idea by a few people casually and met with responses from “interesting but I don’t really get it” to “I’d use that.” My next step is to schedule a bunch of meetings with people and talk to them more formally about the idea and see what I can glean. (If you’re interested in being one of these people, shoot me an email. There may be some coffee in it for you!). This “audience” step is crucial, and until I get it in gear, is a bottleneck for the project. I’ve got to find out what people think, what they need and what direction I should start off in.

Branding: It’s too early to think about the brand yet — except my hypotheses about the audience, and a commitment to an awesome user experience and a highly graphical look and feel to the app. I don’t really have a name. I think that will come as I identify more about the audience and core feature set. In my head and notes, I’ve been using working titles like “Visual Marketing Plan” or “Visual Content Calendar”. Not very catchy. Maybe they’ll turn into part of a tagline later. Maybe the name will be some tidy sub-brand like “Durable Marketing Plan”. Who knows.

Team: For now, it’s mostly me, and maybe, if things work out, a rails developer. More brains on the problem would be beneficial, but for now, this is what it is.

Finances: This is an easy one. At this point, we’ve got nothing. Except time (when?!) and enthusiasm. No plans to do anything but bootstrap away indefinitely at the moment.

Of course I’ve thought a lot about tons of other aspects of this (like how to build a prototype, business models, etc.) but I’ll write about those and lots more as they become more relevant.

Let me know what you think about my app concept, and/or meta-ly the concept of telling you the concept at this juncture. Thanks for coming along for the ride.