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Under the Radar

Under the Radar 110: Workouts++ 2.0 Launch Diary

 

00:00:00   hello and welcome to a slightly

00:00:03   different episode of under-the-radar if

00:00:06   you're a longtime listener to show you

00:00:08   might remember that back last December

00:00:12   when I launched workouts plus plus I

00:00:14   kept a kind of a bday diary of the

00:00:17   experience that I think ended up turning

00:00:21   into a pretty interesting episode I'm

00:00:23   honestly personally very glad to have

00:00:26   recorded it just because so often for

00:00:28   these kinds of things you you have this

00:00:30   experience and honestly with independent

00:00:33   development you often have the

00:00:34   experience complete or served by

00:00:35   yourself largely and it's you never

00:00:39   really get the benefit of kind of

00:00:42   recalling and remembering and just you

00:00:45   know having this memento going forward

00:00:47   and so it's very great to record it and

00:00:49   so today this is December 12 2017 about

00:00:55   a year later I'm launching the 2.0

00:00:58   update of workouts plus plus and as a

00:01:01   result it seemed like a good opportunity

00:01:02   to record my experiences again and

00:01:07   hopefully this is interesting and

00:01:10   somewhat instructive it's funny thing

00:01:13   launching a 2.0 update as opposed to

00:01:17   conversion one ivory listen to a bit of

00:01:20   the I first launched a diary for

00:01:22   workouts plus plus and there's a lot of

00:01:25   apprehension and a lot of the sense of

00:01:27   complete unknown about how it will react

00:01:29   to it about you know how it's going to

00:01:32   go I felt like there was a lot more

00:01:34   riding on it a 2.0 update it feels

00:01:37   different like this is a substantial

00:01:39   update and it's something that I've been

00:01:41   working almost exclusively on for three

00:01:44   or four months now it's a large

00:01:46   substantial investment you know any of

00:01:48   my time but I'll say that I'm less

00:01:52   worried about it then I was for version

00:01:56   1 just because I know the core concept

00:02:00   sort of works you know then it was I had

00:02:02   the experience of workouts plus plus 1.0

00:02:05   to tell me that and then think also I'm

00:02:09   just feeling

00:02:12   slightly liberated by the fact that as I

00:02:15   discussed I think on four or three or

00:02:16   four episodes ago free with benefits I

00:02:19   think was the name of the episode there

00:02:21   was I made the decision that for this

00:02:24   update I'm just making the app

00:02:25   completely free that I'm using this more

00:02:28   as a marketing tool to expand awareness

00:02:30   of my other apps to just in general try

00:02:37   and see if I can make the app broadly

00:02:39   used or you know get wide acceptance and

00:02:42   focus on those things rather than on

00:02:45   trying to you in the short term make

00:02:47   money and that is incredibly liberating

00:02:49   that I'd it's a little weird to not have

00:02:52   the sense of you know if the day goes

00:02:54   really well often there would have been

00:02:56   some kind of you know it's like this

00:02:57   direct payday but it's quite liberating

00:03:01   in some ways to just say like you know

00:03:02   whatever the day is like this is just

00:03:04   step one in trying to build a big broad

00:03:09   audience for the application and

00:03:10   hopefully you know if the app does

00:03:12   really well today that's a good step

00:03:14   toward that process but beyond that it's

00:03:18   it's quite liberating to just be able to

00:03:20   say you know what let's see what happens

00:03:22   and if it doesn't quite go right I guess

00:03:25   you know I'll just continue to sort of

00:03:27   adjust and you know redirect the app had

00:03:31   new features try marketing things just I

00:03:35   have the opportunity to do that in kind

00:03:36   of a fun way but we'll see it's

00:03:39   currently about 5:43 a.m. it's a bit

00:03:44   early but I've started working kind of

00:03:45   early recently and so I'm just doing a

00:03:48   little bit of work before the launch

00:03:50   gets started I expect to launch the app

00:03:52   just before 9 o'clock or so or these

00:03:55   that's when I'll put hit go and iTunes

00:03:58   Connect and then probably do after 9:00

00:04:00   once everything is propagated hopefully

00:04:02   I'll actually you know start sort of

00:04:05   start to promote it and talk about it so

00:04:08   at this point I'm just going through and

00:04:10   editing my sort of launch blog post

00:04:13   where I outline the features and

00:04:15   starting to think of any kind of

00:04:17   checklist items that I need to do

00:04:19   because one thing I've learned from

00:04:22   doing several launches is it's pretty

00:04:25   important for me

00:04:26   to have a like a checklist of things

00:04:29   that I want to do and think about that

00:04:31   now when I'm not kind of in the anxious

00:04:33   excited excitable phase and just write

00:04:37   them all down so right now I'm just

00:04:38   gonna be editing blog posts and thinking

00:04:41   of things I might want to do later on

00:04:42   today and then you know I'll check back

00:04:45   in in a little bit as we get closer to

00:04:47   when I hit go it is now 6:35 a.m. and

00:04:55   this is where the day transitions to do

00:04:58   kind of uh I guess a true indie mode

00:05:00   because as much as I'm excited and

00:05:03   focused on launching the app I am now

00:05:07   going to be transitioning to family

00:05:10   stuff and like getting my kids bright

00:05:12   breakfast and getting them ready due off

00:05:14   to school and then I'll go and drive my

00:05:16   son to school and drop them off and then

00:05:18   come back and it is one of those things

00:05:21   that I feel like is both lovely and

00:05:23   complicated about being an independent

00:05:25   developer where you your personal life

00:05:30   and your professional life are so close

00:05:33   together I try very hard to have them

00:05:35   not over lap too much and get into

00:05:38   intermixed and you know that can cause

00:05:40   lots of problems but they're very close

00:05:43   together you know I'm finishing up this

00:05:45   update and it's a pretty big day for the

00:05:46   business overall I you know I'm about to

00:05:49   just go and make breakfast and do that

00:05:52   kind of stuff and then I'll come back

00:05:53   and I'll do some work and it's kind of

00:05:56   one of those funny things about being in

00:05:58   this role where you're never really away

00:06:01   from work and you're never really away

00:06:02   from home and it is nice I will say on a

00:06:04   day like this to have that balance to

00:06:06   have that thing that's grounding me that

00:06:08   me know my kids you know we're launching

00:06:09   an app today and they're kind of excited

00:06:10   and motivating and encouraging about

00:06:12   that but at the same time it's not

00:06:16   something that they're really

00:06:18   understanding like it's still just

00:06:20   another day for them in a lot of ways

00:06:21   and they're gonna you know we're just

00:06:23   going to go have breakfast like we

00:06:24   normally do have a normal morning and

00:06:26   then you know I'll be coming back to

00:06:28   work and it's a you know a significant

00:06:30   day and that grounding effect is

00:06:32   definitely very nice and it helps me I'm

00:06:35   getting to in my head or you know to

00:06:37   concerned or worried about you know what

00:06:39   the day is gonna look like all right it

00:06:42   is 829 a.m. I am sitting in traffic

00:06:47   coming a home from dropping my son off

00:06:52   at school a lot of mixed feelings

00:06:54   because it's initially as soon as I get

00:06:56   home I will be launching the app so I'm

00:07:00   thinking about it a lot it's worth

00:07:02   mentioning briefly the reason it might

00:07:03   sound different beyond just being me

00:07:06   rather than me and Marco this week is

00:07:08   I'm recording on a mobile recorder just

00:07:10   so that I can do things like this that

00:07:12   it can be a diary throughout the day

00:07:14   wherever I am not just every moment that

00:07:17   I'm stuck in the desk so if it sounds a

00:07:18   little different if the quality isn't

00:07:19   quite what you're used to

00:07:20   I understand that's what's going on

00:07:22   there I also thought it'd be an

00:07:24   interesting probably good time to talk a

00:07:25   little bit about the update itself and

00:07:28   why I'm excited about it even what's

00:07:30   what's what's happening with this update

00:07:32   so we're castles plus 2.0 is the three

00:07:36   main features like the marquee features

00:07:38   our watch based podcast playback

00:07:43   location tracking and zoom support as

00:07:47   well as there's a whole bunch of other

00:07:48   stuff but those are the big three and in

00:07:51   a lot of ways it's kind of finishing the

00:07:53   app that I started with workouts plus

00:07:56   plus 1.0 because in workouts plus plus

00:07:59   1.0 a lot of those things just weren't

00:08:01   really possible things like swimming

00:08:03   support wasn't great until four point

00:08:05   until watch OS 4.0 location tracking

00:08:08   just wasn't possible before 4.0 and

00:08:12   podcast playback support was sort of

00:08:15   possible before but not really but

00:08:17   wasn't really quite as compelling until

00:08:20   we got the LTE have a watches so those

00:08:24   are that's sort of the big three main

00:08:27   big main features and in addition to

00:08:30   that there's just the whole host of

00:08:31   other stuff it has Siri integration a

00:08:33   new design I did a lot of work on the

00:08:35   charting that I do in the app so to

00:08:38   display your heart rate and your speed

00:08:40   over time there's a lot of other kind of

00:08:43   things like that but those are the three

00:08:44   main features and it's funny because I

00:08:47   think the thing that most people are

00:08:49   probably like in

00:08:50   the initial audience of the app my guess

00:08:53   I mean this is entirely speculative but

00:08:54   my guess is that most people are going

00:08:56   to be interested in the watch based

00:08:58   podcast playback because it's a really

00:09:01   tricky problem to solve it's kind of

00:09:02   hard and it's anytime I was I'm able to

00:09:05   solve a problem that ostensibly isn't

00:09:08   solvable I always you know I'm excited

00:09:10   about that that I was able to because of

00:09:12   a lot of the weird mechanics of how a

00:09:14   workout apps work I was able to get

00:09:17   blood podcast playback working pretty

00:09:19   well and watch in practice I imagine the

00:09:22   actual number of people who use the app

00:09:24   for about podcast playback is gonna be

00:09:26   relatively small um in my own experience

00:09:29   it's really really really nice in a

00:09:32   really narrow use case to have podcast

00:09:34   playback on the watch things like going

00:09:36   out for a run and it's delightful if you

00:09:39   have an LTE watch to just go out and run

00:09:41   with just your watch no phone you just

00:09:43   put your ear pods in and off you go like

00:09:45   that's that's delightful but that's a

00:09:48   relatively small number of people who I

00:09:49   think are going to be using it for that

00:09:51   purpose like the location tracking and

00:09:54   the swimming support is actually

00:09:55   probably a much more important to most

00:09:57   of my customers but I think it's going

00:09:59   to be funny today because I think more

00:10:00   attention is going to come from the sort

00:10:03   of the niche feature rather than the

00:10:04   core feature but I mean part of why I

00:10:07   made the niche feature is because it's

00:10:11   good for press and also it's something

00:10:12   that I just wanted for myself

00:10:14   when I started off making podcasts

00:10:15   playback for workouts plus plus I

00:10:18   started off doing it not really

00:10:20   expecting necessarily that I was going

00:10:22   to ever be able to ship it that it would

00:10:24   ever be good enough to actually release

00:10:26   because I thought there was gonna be too

00:10:28   many weird caveats and quirks and things

00:10:30   I had to work around but in the end it

00:10:32   actually did work out and it's it's

00:10:34   shippable and it it works but I'd

00:10:37   created it mostly for myself for those

00:10:39   rare situations where I'm gonna be you

00:10:43   know wanted to go for a run and don't

00:10:44   want to carry my phone because I really

00:10:45   hate having the little pouch that I have

00:10:47   to you know strap onto my arm or onto my

00:10:50   waist and so it's quite nice to not have

00:10:52   that um Bay yeah so this is kind of the

00:10:54   core features and then it's just a like

00:10:55   a lot of other stuff like it's one of

00:10:57   these updates where you know I probably

00:10:59   added you know 40 50 features and in

00:11:02   total over the course of the update

00:11:04   and in aggregate it's you know it

00:11:06   dramatically changes the way that the

00:11:08   app feels in the way that the Hat yep

00:11:10   behaves but no one of them other than

00:11:15   those three are these kind of like huge

00:11:16   big marquee features but anyway so I'm

00:11:20   driving home I'll be home soon and then

00:11:22   I'll be flipping the switch so you know

00:11:25   unless I just it's like it's a little

00:11:27   bit scary he's like I'm delighted to be

00:11:30   excited to go home but I'm also a little

00:11:31   bit nervous because once it's once I

00:11:33   flip the switch then it's out in the

00:11:34   world and in kind of a weird way it's

00:11:37   it's sort of like I don't know it's like

00:11:38   asking someone out on a date or

00:11:40   something where you have to sort of put

00:11:41   yourself out there but anytime I launch

00:11:44   an app it's not just this thing that you

00:11:46   know is between me and with some of my

00:11:48   close friends now everyone is gonna see

00:11:50   it and and I hopefully like it but maybe

00:11:52   not like it and so those kind of

00:11:54   feelings are really complicated but you

00:11:56   know anyway I'll be home soon and we'll

00:11:58   go from there all right so it is now

00:12:02   8:55 a.m. and I'm here with my wife but

00:12:08   because it's I was gonna ask her if she

00:12:10   wanted to push the button she's been the

00:12:12   very supportive wife who's but born with

00:12:15   me as I've gone through this update so

00:12:17   it seemed only right that she would push

00:12:18   the actual release of this version

00:12:20   button I'm pretty actually very honored

00:12:22   and excited to do this because I have

00:12:24   never shipped it out there you go your

00:12:26   majesty

00:12:26   you're about to ship it here we go

00:12:28   release this version I see the spinning

00:12:32   this is very exciting lots of spinning

00:12:37   and their wares that say and thereof the

00:12:46   the incredibly uncanny anticlimactic

00:12:49   part of this it's like and then nothing

00:12:53   happens please not right away

00:12:56   so then we just wait and see for how

00:12:59   long it takes to propagate through the

00:13:00   app store it is now 912 am and I'm just

00:13:05   sitting here refreshing the app store

00:13:08   page in a browser they used to do this

00:13:11   in iTunes then the iTunes got rid of the

00:13:13   app store so now I'm just sitting here

00:13:16   in a browser

00:13:17   refresh refresh refresh hoping that it

00:13:20   comes out and the hits the AppStore soon

00:13:24   so I can sort of get out of waiting mode

00:13:27   yeah otherwise it's this is the weird

00:13:30   part of the day where you you hit go and

00:13:32   then you have no idea how long it'll be

00:13:34   until it's actually go time

00:13:36   it is 922 am still frantically

00:13:40   refreshing

00:13:41   9:38 am getting close to an hour now

00:13:46   since I hit go and I'm still waiting

00:13:51   alright it is now basically ten o'clock

00:13:55   thanks for getting serious I'm still

00:13:57   waiting for it to propagate to the App

00:14:00   Store but I'm giving my command and my R

00:14:03   key at rest by I created a Pingdom alert

00:14:07   now for the App Store page just so once

00:14:11   a minute it's checking it and will alert

00:14:13   me when it's a 2.0 finally appears in

00:14:15   the App Store and desperate times call

00:14:18   for desperate measures

00:14:20   so this morning is not going at all how

00:14:23   I expected it would be yeah so it's

00:14:26   still enough not showing up in the App

00:14:28   Store and I would plan to ready to go

00:14:31   and run a few errands and then go to the

00:14:32   gym and just at this point I figure

00:14:34   things that have settled down so I'm

00:14:36   still just gonna I'm gonna go run my

00:14:38   errands go to the gym I guess I could

00:14:40   say I'm doing some field testing for a

00:14:41   workouts plus plus during that and then

00:14:44   just wait and see hopefully I'll get an

00:14:46   alert at some point that it's up but

00:14:48   yeah not exactly how I expected my

00:14:50   morning to go

00:14:51   oh well sweet is now midday noon and

00:14:55   still no sign of it appearing in the App

00:14:58   Store I've run all my errands I'm at the

00:15:00   gym I'm about to go to a workout if

00:15:04   it'll that I mean everything or nothing

00:15:06   to you that the work I'm about to go do

00:15:07   is a very eternal fight gone bad so I

00:15:11   will be thoroughly worked out and I

00:15:14   guess testing my app over the next hours

00:15:17   and then hopefully eventually it'll

00:15:19   appear in the App Store and I can move

00:15:20   on so it's now 4 p.m. and I realize this

00:15:27   does not make good radio what's

00:15:29   ever just here report after a report of

00:15:34   the app never propagating but at least

00:15:36   on the plus side in a weird way I've

00:15:38   gotten a lot of reports for other apps

00:15:40   are also having the same trouble so it

00:15:42   seems like I just picked a bad day in

00:15:45   the App Store is for some reason having

00:15:47   a massive pickup today and not updating

00:15:49   and not propagating so I don't really

00:15:51   know what that means the kind of awkward

00:15:53   thing is at some point it'll just appear

00:15:55   and so like that and I just be in the

00:15:56   middle of the night and I don't really

00:15:59   know but yeah it's a bit frustrating

00:16:02   alright is now 5 p.m. and I guess I'm

00:16:06   gonna take a break from my vigil I mean

00:16:08   I've been able to do a few other things

00:16:09   work wise today but overall it's been a

00:16:12   bit of a bit of a waste of the day so

00:16:14   far alright it is 6:30 p.m. and finally

00:16:21   progress many many many hours later we

00:16:24   finally have some progress the app seems

00:16:26   to be profs learning to propagate I now

00:16:28   have new screenshots but old version

00:16:34   texts in the App Store which makes me

00:16:36   think that finally it's coming the

00:16:39   moment is finally here it's a little

00:16:41   awkward that it's 6:30 at night but

00:16:44   we'll just do our best so I thought

00:16:48   about it a while it's about 6 54 now

00:16:52   about exactly what I was going to do and

00:16:54   I think I've decided is I'm gonna do

00:16:56   kind of a soft launch tonight just like

00:16:58   a tweet just putting it out there that

00:17:01   hey the updates out it's include some

00:17:03   basic features and then tomorrow morning

00:17:05   I'll do kind of a more concerted push

00:17:07   and effort but I want to kind of just

00:17:10   put it out there in the world but this

00:17:12   update is there it's available am i

00:17:15   thinking there is just I don't want to

00:17:16   have anybody who is essentially thinking

00:17:19   of linking to it or written press or

00:17:21   something something like it's kind of in

00:17:23   this kind of this weird embargoed state

00:17:25   I'd rather just kind of say hey it's out

00:17:27   there you know but do my big push in the

00:17:29   morning I don't know if it's the right

00:17:31   right idea and honestly at this point

00:17:33   I'm just kind of exhausted but that's

00:17:36   what I've decided to do so well you know

00:17:39   do that and see what see where to go

00:17:40   next

00:17:42   so it's now see 754 p.m. the tweets are

00:17:48   tweeted things are you know going pretty

00:17:51   well I'd say the reception in so far has

00:17:53   been generally pretty positive and inked

00:17:56   you know encouraging which is which is

00:17:58   lovely and it's kind of funny though

00:18:00   because I've been doing this kind of app

00:18:03   store stuff for so much longer now that

00:18:05   I'm at a point where well I'm excited

00:18:08   about the launch well it's you know it's

00:18:10   a really fun and you know important part

00:18:12   of the process the actual importance of

00:18:16   it to me is is dramatically reduced

00:18:18   compared to what it may have been a few

00:18:21   years ago because while I know it's an

00:18:25   important part of you know having a

00:18:26   building an apps audience you know the

00:18:29   real test for the app and the real

00:18:31   importance for the app is not how it

00:18:33   performs in the next 24 hours you know

00:18:35   it's how it performs the next 24 weeks

00:18:37   and you're making choices and directing

00:18:40   things to hopefully allow it to be

00:18:42   sustainable in the long term so now the

00:18:45   timber is in a weird way

00:18:47   Mike the enthusiasm for today because

00:18:50   you know any realize that it's a long

00:18:51   journey from here but you know

00:18:54   nevertheless today going well isn't it

00:18:56   with less very encouraging I gotta say

00:19:01   real-time analytics are both the most

00:19:05   wonderful and the most awful terrible

00:19:09   thing in the world of it you might not

00:19:15   know this but if you go into the

00:19:17   affiliate console so if you have like a

00:19:20   link to something in the App Store you

00:19:22   can create an affiliate link where you

00:19:24   get a little commission but mostly I use

00:19:26   it so I can kind of keep track of where

00:19:27   my links are coming from and inside of

00:19:30   that panel there's a real-time tracker

00:19:33   of clicks on those links which is great

00:19:38   except it also just means that I'm just

00:19:40   sitting here and have been sitting here

00:19:42   for the last five minutes just watching

00:19:43   this ticker go by you know every time

00:19:46   someone clicks on a link to workouts

00:19:48   plus plus in the App Store so yeah Oh

00:19:51   wonderful but also terrible certainly if

00:19:54   I was trying to get some

00:19:55   work done all right it is coming up on

00:19:59   10 o'clock at night things are settling

00:20:03   down it's kind of nice I'm up later than

00:20:06   I usually am it's about past my bedtime

00:20:07   but I wanted to just sort of you know be

00:20:11   aware if there's any issues that jumped

00:20:13   up I am honestly kind of nervous about

00:20:16   in the morning when I had a lot of

00:20:18   people who say hey can't wait to use it

00:20:19   first thing in the morning for my

00:20:21   morning run

00:20:23   I'll have tested the app like you know

00:20:26   as much as I can I take it very

00:20:29   seriously the responsibility of people

00:20:31   we know recording their workouts in the

00:20:33   app and expecting it to work flawlessly

00:20:34   and so how a little nervous now and

00:20:38   we'll hopefully I feel a bit better in

00:20:41   the morning when I get a few reports

00:20:43   back of things working correctly

00:20:45   but right now I'm just tired you know

00:20:47   I've been up for a long time at this

00:20:49   point had kind of a rough day middle of

00:20:52   the day anyway and but overall things

00:20:55   are going good I'll check in in the

00:20:57   morning I do my little publicity push

00:21:00   and kind of move on to the next phase of

00:21:02   things it is now about 8:30 on Wednesday

00:21:09   morning so the next the day after the

00:21:11   launch Espo's and yeah things are good

00:21:14   things went well overnight I was up a

00:21:15   little bit late just respond to people

00:21:17   on Twitter and just kind of getting a

00:21:18   general sense of things and watching

00:21:20   those curses real-time reports and

00:21:23   overall I'd say you know things seemed

00:21:25   well there's a couple issues around

00:21:27   podcast import and transfer but I always

00:21:30   knew those were going to be the rough

00:21:32   edges

00:21:33   honestly I'm most glad that I haven't

00:21:36   had any reports of things going on with

00:21:38   you know data loss or things like that

00:21:41   like that's an area that I will say it's

00:21:43   like the one thing I always remember

00:21:45   when I was taking classes in college and

00:21:49   they would talk about like sort of

00:21:51   real-time systems and things where the

00:21:53   you know it's like you know if like a

00:21:54   flight control software or something

00:21:56   where you can't make a mistake because

00:21:58   you know then people will get hurt and

00:22:02   while I'm delighted that I don't work on

00:22:04   any high software like that and I was

00:22:06   kind of decided that I do really just

00:22:08   didn't want to go

00:22:09   down that road the closest thing to it

00:22:11   in a weird way that I do is safeguarding

00:22:13   people's workout data that you know I

00:22:16   take it very seriously that people take

00:22:17   their data very seriously and you know

00:22:20   took a tremendous amount of effort to

00:22:22   make sure that even if things go funny

00:22:24   like the app crashes or battery watches

00:22:26   that battery runs out on your watch or

00:22:28   whatever like the data is safe and

00:22:30   you'll be able to get it back so

00:22:32   thankfully so far that seems to have

00:22:34   worked and I haven't had any you know

00:22:37   widespread reports and you know overall

00:22:38   the reception's been pretty good I was

00:22:41   noticed that I was mentioned on nine to

00:22:43   five Mac and Mac rumors which I was not

00:22:45   expecting at all which was super cool

00:22:47   and like kind of it's always exciting

00:22:50   when you just see Rab mentioned and you

00:22:52   know something a publication that you

00:22:54   read normally but you know how did I

00:22:57   know expectation or guess that that was

00:22:59   gonna happen they just picked it up from

00:23:01   somewhere else I suppose I hadn't

00:23:03   reached out to them so like that was

00:23:04   super cool yeah now I'm about to publish

00:23:07   on my like a blog post and I'll do kind

00:23:09   of a little a secondary push this

00:23:11   morning and then just kind of settle

00:23:13   into it and you know see where the app

00:23:15   goes alright I'm going to wrap up this

00:23:20   diary at this point it's you know the

00:23:23   day after P launch too late as it was

00:23:27   and you know things are settling down

00:23:30   the place this is the I have a few kind

00:23:34   of closing thoughts and things that are

00:23:37   just sort of the realities of launch and

00:23:39   you know this the Steyr didn't go

00:23:40   exactly how I planned but I think in

00:23:41   many ways that's that's something that's

00:23:43   interesting to discuss before I do that

00:23:45   though I do need to mention that this

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00:24:40   thanks for our thanks to Leonard for

00:24:43   sponsoring this show so in close some

00:24:47   closing thoughts I was trying to think

00:24:48   of how I could wrap this up and really I

00:24:53   think you know in many ways then he'd be

00:24:57   unfortunate but still meaningful lesson

00:24:59   of this experience is making sure that

00:25:02   you have you know manager expectations

00:25:05   for something like this that you know

00:25:07   the launch went well it was picked up in

00:25:09   places I was not expecting to be picked

00:25:11   up as best I can tell from initial sales

00:25:13   and response it went you know and as

00:25:15   well as I could have hoped for

00:25:16   you know things things are good but I

00:25:20   think it's often easy to end up with

00:25:23   kind of like a movie in your mind right

00:25:26   like you end up with this expectation

00:25:28   that is outsized to reality and in that

00:25:32   I think that's the reality of what

00:25:33   happened to me in this case and you know

00:25:35   things like it being delayed and you

00:25:36   know I have planning around I launched a

00:25:39   particular time and that not happening

00:25:41   but you know that that's life that's

00:25:42   what's going to happen but I think the

00:25:46   thing that is probably most important to

00:25:48   remember is that you know it's like the

00:25:51   this is just day one this is the first

00:25:55   couple days it doesn't actually matter

00:25:57   probably in practice or in reality you

00:26:00   know what Pratt what matters in practice

00:26:01   is what happens over the next few weeks

00:26:03   few months like that's the life of the

00:26:05   app not not today

00:26:07   and what's really probably important for

00:26:08   today and this is something then not

00:26:11   encourage every anyone launching

00:26:12   anything to do is to just celebrate the

00:26:14   accomplishment of getting to this point

00:26:16   my wife is incredibly good at this and

00:26:19   you know like we're having a fancy steak

00:26:21   dinner tonight at home just to celebrate

00:26:25   this and she makes a big deal out of you

00:26:27   know getting to this point because you

00:26:31   know especially when you're an

00:26:32   independent developer you have you you

00:26:33   know your family is your team in that

00:26:35   and you know if I was working at a

00:26:37   bigger company maybe we would you know

00:26:39   I'll go out too I'll go out to a nice

00:26:41   lunch or go out to a happy hour or

00:26:43   something like you might have a

00:26:43   celebrate you know have a cake in the

00:26:45   break room whatever it is like you may

00:26:48   have something that you would do but you

00:26:50   know being a one-man shop like it was

00:26:52   yeah if you remember back to the

00:26:54   beginning of this this episode I had had

00:26:56   my wife push the release button which

00:26:58   was kind of exciting and then also like

00:27:01   you know we're celebrating it tonight

00:27:02   and it might making a big deal out of it

00:27:06   by being intentional about that I think

00:27:07   it's an important part of you know it's

00:27:11   like you can only do so much and I think

00:27:13   we were saying we always you know it's a

00:27:15   its base but it's parenting advice but

00:27:17   we always talk about in the in my my my

00:27:20   family about you know we praise

00:27:22   performance not outcome we focus on you

00:27:26   know the input the effort the how much

00:27:30   effort you put into something your

00:27:32   intention about it and we feel good I

00:27:34   and focus on that rather than the

00:27:35   outcome you know I it makes no sense to

00:27:37   have your goal be tune if your goal is

00:27:41   to have a number one app say for

00:27:44   whatever definition of a number one that

00:27:45   is the unfortunate thing about having

00:27:48   that as a goal is you have no control

00:27:50   over that directly you can't do anything

00:27:53   to make that happen

00:27:54   it may happen or may not happen but most

00:27:57   of the reasons why it would happen are

00:27:59   outside of your control you know you say

00:28:01   I want to have and want to hit number

00:28:03   one on launch day like if that's your

00:28:05   goal then the reality is what if someone

00:28:08   else lunches on that day and they have a

00:28:11   better app than you you're not going to

00:28:13   meet your goal

00:28:14   but you did everything you could right

00:28:16   focus on the on the input and like I'm

00:28:18   very proud of that work I put into this

00:28:20   the effort it took the you know the

00:28:23   patience it took my goodness there was

00:28:24   so much testing with this app update but

00:28:28   the focusing by focusing on those things

00:28:32   and this it's a hard thing like it's so

00:28:34   easy to just focus on the tangibles and

00:28:36   the measurables because I think that's

00:28:38   easy

00:28:39   it's easier to do and if there's a

00:28:41   natural inclination to to focus just

00:28:42   something that's a bit more measurable

00:28:43   but you know focus on the outcome or

00:28:46   focus on the performance

00:28:48   of the work that I did we're gonna

00:28:50   celebrate we're gonna hopefully you know

00:28:53   and then move on from here and I think

00:28:55   that that's what I mean that's what I'm

00:28:57   doing this I'd encourage anyone to do

00:28:59   make sure you manage your expectations

00:29:00   and you know hopefully that will be

00:29:02   enough to have a good launch and to

00:29:05   finally having a good launch as you know

00:29:07   if they think things not falling apart

00:29:09   when it gets out into the world like

00:29:10   that's something that you have control

00:29:11   over and some that you can do so anyway

00:29:14   hopefully this diary was interesting I

00:29:16   know these episodes are a bit different

00:29:17   than what normal yeah Marco and I will

00:29:19   be back for a normally scheduled program

00:29:21   next week so if this is not your thing

00:29:22   don't worry and I will talk to you next

00:29:25   week thank you so much for listening and

00:29:27   thank you to Leonard for supporting the

00:29:28   show