Shlomo Zalman Heigh is founder and CEO of Heigh Tech LLC. Below, he explains how Getting Real and REWORK inspired him to build a web app.
Our first product was a Windows application called Heigh Speed. After creating Heigh Speed, I became interested in web development. I read some books about PHP, Perl, etc., but nothing seemed too appealing to me. Then, I read a book about JavaScript, and I was very impressed by the “chilled out” nature of the language. It seemed much easier than C++, which was the main language I used at the time.
At the same time, I found out about Getting Real by 37signals. When I got to the part about “scratching your own itch”, I thought about how I was looking for a user interface sketching tool for a while. I knew about a few, like Balsamiq Mockups, but they were all too complicated, and sketches are supposed to be simple, so you need a simple app to allow you to focus on the big picture and ignore the details. I decided I would create my own UI sketching tool using Getting Real’s approach.
I started to create a JavaScript application, dealing only with the browser, and not focusing on the server at all. After a while, the application became quite big, and I decided it would be a good idea to research a project management application. Getting Real mentions Basecamp a few times, so I decided to try it out. I was very impressed by it, so I signed up.
I started to become worried about where I would store all the data for my application. I knew I needed some kind of server-side web application framework that would allow me to easily store data in a database of some kind.
Ruby on Rails was mentioned a few times in Getting Real, so I decided to try it. Needless to say, I haven’t looked back. I have been using Ruby on Rails for everything since then, and I absolutely love it.
As my web application was nearing completion, I knew it was time to work on more business-related things. It was at this time that I found out about REWORK, 37signals’ business book. I found it at my local public library (it took a while to find it, because it wasn’t with the business books; it was on display in the bestseller section :)"). REWORK has helped me immensely to run my business successfully.
The finished product is a web app called Sketch Lab, available at sketchlabhq.com.
Have you been inspired by a 37signals book? Let us know.
If you're new to the startup world, I would recommend reading and re-reading the following 6 books. In fact, I would go farther and say that you should not start your company until you read through this list:
Getting Real by the guys from 37signals
If you've never built a product or if you're a non-technical MBA, start here. The purpose is to learn the basics of agile development early on...
REWORK also by the guys from 37signals
Rework is a collection of essays from their wonderful blog, Signals vs. Noise. Reading it as a whole is a nice way to learn about how to think of your startup as a business that needs to make money. These guys are pro-bootstrapping, pro-profits, and anti-venture investing. They're a nice counterpoint to much of the startup literature that focuses on how to raise money as the primary goal in the early part of a company.
We continue to be blown away by the number of people using Teenormous to buy great t-shirts. In our second year, we’ve sent over $800,000 in t-shirt sales to our merchants. For the 2010 calendar year we’re on track to reach over $1 million in t-shirts sales just in 2010 alone.
In the post, Teenormous gives a shoutout to Getting Real for helping them focus on what matters:
37signals - Thanks for both RubyOnRails and Getting Real. Teenormous is built on RubyOnRails and we don’t think we could have executed as well as we have without it. As a team of two that maintains Teenormous in our spare time, Getting Real has proven to be a crucial guide book to follow for doing more with less, and focusing on what matters.
Coming from the world of professional software development, it's refreshing to read the views and opinions of a successful modern web development team. Where my world is encumbered by requirements, estimates, timescales, version control, testing, delivery and deployment, their world is comparatively free...If you are anything like me, and you have an innate interest in the methodology behind software and web development, you'll find "Getting Real" really interesting.
Geoff Newman of Recruitment Genius writes in to explain how Getting Real has helped him make radical changes to his business:
I wanted to write and thank you for the great business advice you have been posting on your blog and in the book Getting Real.
In December 2009 I made some radical changes to the business: significantly reducing head count; closing 12 out of 13 offices and asking everyone to work from home. This decision was influenced by some of the guiding principles outlined in your book. The results have been brilliant.
A web-redesign that had taken 1.5 years was scrapped then started again on the 'less is more' ethos. We are almost near completion on the project which has taken just over 1 month!
The management style has changed. We clearly focus on success and there is a lot more trust within the organisation. Productivity has also increased as everyone works the hours they feel most effective and their lifestyle has also improved.
In December we developed a new business model for recruitment which is already being widely acknowledged as a better way of doing business. We are now more passionate and committed to the company's purpose than ever before.
I have a life, and time to see the family which has shown me how much I have to be grateful for.
...I've never enjoyed work so much.
I'm really looking forward to reading REWORK and using the ideas to transform our business and life. Please - keep up the great work.
I'm writing to let you know about "Make It! Mid-Century Modern," a mid-century modern how-to manual I'm self-publishing. The book includes twelve detailed, well-photographed how-to projects inspired by designers like Eames, Girard, Saarinen and others.
The whole project was sort of a 'Getting Real' for publishing (instead of software). We:
- used online collaboration tools to work with three writers and one graphic designer remotely.
- tracked progress using Basecamp and Campfire.
- under-did our competitors: other books in the same niche include more than 50 projects; we chose 12 we knew we could do really well, really quickly.
Russell Quinn and McSweeney's — an American indie publishing house — officially announced their joint iPhone app last Tuesday. Within three hours it had surged to number 1 in the U.S. iTunes book category, broke the top 50 in the all-category Highest Grossing chart, and created a storm of excitement on Twitter.
Below, Russell details how Getting Real inspired the effort and how the team used Basecamp to manage the project.
The collaboration started over the summer. I had been thinking about writing my own iPhone app for a while, but knew that to make something really compelling, I needed great content and a known name that would be prepared to take the risk with me.
I've been a fan of McSweeney's for a long time, and creating an app for them seemed like the perfect match. I had an iPhone. I read their books and watched their DVDs. I would really like to see their content on my iPhone. I was to be my own target audience.
I fired off an email to them proposing that we work together on such project. They replied within 30 minutes and an hour later we were Skyping and formulating the first strategies.
As McSweeney's are based on the west coast of America and I'm currently living in Zürich, Switzerland we had a major time difference to contend with. We started using Basecamp that same day, and have used it ever since for everything from reviewing screen designs, to hammering the copy into shape in Writeboards, to keeping track of deadlines and development to-do lists. A second project also served as an excellent platform for our closed beta stage, giving our testers a place to collect the new binaries and leave feedback.
The whole process from start to finish felt very agile and focussed on just creating the best product we could. The timezone mismatch meant that we were effectively a 24-hour team. I would work all day in peace, then send some previews or questions as I left my workspace for home. Eli, from McSweeney's, would then collect opinions, plus any necessary material and upload it before I awoke in the morning.
This "Getting Real" ideology, combined with an extensive use of Basecamp for all our communication and project management needs, means we really have 37signals to thank for making the logistics of this project possible in such a short timeframe. Hey, even our server-side system is running on Ruby on Rails.