John Zechlin, Principal Software Engineer, PHX Devs
So, you have a great idea but you’re not sure where to start. Maybe your great idea is for a business, an app, or anything else. John Zechlin, Principal Software Engineer at PHX Devs shared 6 ways to get started on that great ideas.
- Attend PHX Startup Week! John shared a story with our team about a speaker he listened to in Gilbert at PHX Startup Week last year that actually was part of the motivation for him to gather a team and launch PHX Devs. PHX Startup Week is an opportunity to put yourself in front of resources, new ideas, new connections and so much more.
- Listen to ‘How I Built This’. In case you’re not familiar, ‘How I Built This’ is a podcast from NPR hosted by Guy Raz. In each episode, Guy Raz speaker with innovators and entrepreneurs to learn the stories behind the businesses they’ve created. These podcast episodes are inspiring and insightful and John shared that he’s collected many golden nuggets from this show.
- Ask yourself what is stopping you. You have a great idea, but you haven’t taken the leap yet. Why? What’s stopping you? This personal evaluation might be challenging but it’s essential in moving forward. Are you scared of failure? Do you not have enough time?
- Mitigate what’s stopping you. This next step makes sense. Once you discover what is holding you back, it allows you to start making progress in mitigating that roadblock. This might be a bit of a process but create a plan to move the roadblock and allow yourself to move forward.
- Decide what the minimum required to take your idea to the next step. Say that you have a great idea for an app, but the full version you’d love to bring to the market would involve a significant investment of time and money. Is there a smaller or different version of the app that you could bring to market first that would require less investment but would keep your idea moving forward?
- Define what early success will look like. Success is personally defined by every person. Define with yourself or your team what early success would look like.
- Pick something, take steps, and move the needle. There’s the age-old saying, that when you have a pile of bricks to move, all you have to do it just move one brick a day. Just do something every day to move yourself and your idea forward. Set aside a chunk of time and work on connecting with others, writing a business plan, publishing content, etc.
If you’re interested in continuing the conversation, or if you have a development need, be sure to stop by and visit PHX Devs at PHX Startup Week 2020!
John Zechlin, Co-Founder, Principal Software Engineer, PHX Devs