igorsales.ca spelled sales, pronounced like sah-les.

It’s been almost one full year of TeamCamp (led by our fearless leader Chris Schmitt) for me, and I have learned some invaluable lessons.

Execution, execution, execution

You can have a million dollar idea. If it doesn’t leave your head, it’s worth nothing. It’s that simple. Like many people, I had the misconception that they are ought to get me: Other people are out there to steal my ideas, screw me over, climb on my back, and then sue me. Ok, perhaps not quite as dramatically, but you get the point.

My advice: talk to people. If you have an idea, share it. There’s people out there willing to listen, to give you advice, to help you, and best of all: waiting for you to execute on it, so they can use it!

Most importantly, when you try to execute your idea you will realize why execution is so much more important (and difficult) than the idea itself. Thomas Edison had realized this way back (1% inspiration vs. 99% perspiration).

Network

Ok, so executing your idea sounds wonderful right about now. I learned that part of the execution is to share the idea and listen to feedback. Who is willing to listen to your idea?

Like-minded people.

Find working groups of interest to you. Join mailing lists, start a blog, get a twitter account, listen and be heard. Surround yourself with peers that want to achieve similar goals.

That became the one of the main reasons I kept going to TeamCamp. First I got to know the venue, The Code Factory. Quickly I learned about all the birds-of-a-feather groups and meetings taking place in the region. Then lots of well connected people connected me with other well-connected people. Someday, I hope I’ll be as well connected, and pay back the favour.

The power of examples

Winter was starting to settle in. It was still one of my first TeamCamp meetings, and many new faces were present. We weren’t discussing any particularly interesting topic amongst techies, so there was almost a look of apathy on everyone’s face. We turned to the second half of the meeting, where John Nash wanted to talk about something he had built on his spare time. He didn’t have a fancy presentation. He just did a brief introduction, a demo, and suddenly it clicked. The look on our faces changed immediately. On all of us. On another meeting about how to present to customers, months later, Allan Isfan reiterated the same concept.

I have no scientific evidence of this, but it’s easy to observe the empirical evidence. It’s much easier to explain something when you see it working rather than to talk about it. A mock-up, a very simple implementation of a concept, that’s all it takes.

MVP

No, not Most Valuable Player, but rather Minimum Viable Product. Since you’re building a demo version of your idea, why not think about the absolute minimum you need to get it in front of customers? Fact is, MVP is so simple, it doesn’t need further explanation.

The MVP will allow you to get feedback quick, and show it to potential customers. It will also provide some insight into how difficult it’ll be to implement the full-featured product. It may also help you land the first customers, which can help fund the second round of implementation and so on.

It’s been a great ride, and I’m looking forward to the next year of TeamCamp.