The day before yesterday I registered a domain name for a new project and yesterday (while recovering from a really upset stomach) I wrote three A5 pages with a database model, sketchy requirements and possible features. All from very basic ones (“It shall be possible to register a new user account”) to some that are way into the future (“A user can customize font and color”). Maybe five of those requirements will make the cut for a first version of the site…
I’ve promised myself to write the project in Ruby on Rails (not a PHP hack like folkmun.se) and do my best to use TDD or maybe even BDD. If I go for BDD there’s an RSpec plugin for Ruby on Rails and I’ve found some interesting reading, for example Developing a Rails model using BDD and RSpec, Part 1.
So, will it fly? Evan Williams lists a number of questions for evaluation of product ideas:
- Tractability: How difficult will it be to launch a worthwhile version 1.0?
- Obviousness: Is it clear why people should use it?
- Deepness: How much value can you ultimately deliver?
- Wideness: How many people may ultimately use it?
- Discoverability: How will people learn about your product?
- Monetizability: How hard will it be to extract the money?
- Personally Compelling: Do you really want it to exist in the world?