So You Want to Build a Startup? – Step One: Get Your Story Straight

Ryan Sholin has a good post on "Working with Developers and Designers."

It hit the spot for me – because it’s the stage I’m at right now. But I wanted to add one more tip to his list. It was one of the best tidbits of advice that I got when I was in the very early stages of spot.us. (Hat tip to Susan).

It’s advice that I now dish out whenever somebody starts telling me about their dream startup. The reaction I always get is "that’s great advice – it’s exactly what I need to give me some direction."

Write a narrative.

• First define your audience(s). What are the types of users you want?
• Then imagine them signing up for your site.
• Write the narrative of how they will interact with the site. This is a bit like writing a choose your own adventure book. Just imagine all the different ways the user will interact with the site and other users. Spell them out step-by-step.

This is your chance to write digital poetry. If you are a digital native then you understand the flow of sites. You realize you can mix and match certain elements and at this stage you can do so with ease. Want the ability to join groups? Go for it. Perhaps you want the ability to have a "friend" or "follow" list – grand. Just write the narrative out for all the users. Journalists are natural storytellers. Now you can use that skill to its utmost potential.

Then, of course, you’ll have to bring an editorial eye to that narrative – but it’s an essential part of the process. It clears your own thinking – allows you to zero in on what you want the site to do, what is superfluous and what creates the value added.

From there you can do the more traditional steps of creating a flow-chart or doing an html mock-up, etc. Working with developers is never easy – but having a narrative and understanding it from top to bottom will certainly help.

Then I’d check out Ryan’s tips which are also very helpful.

MORE READING

1. How to Save Money Running a Startup (Jason Calacanis)
2. Tips from Loic Lemeur: Founder of Seesmic.
3. Paul Graham (way smart dude): "How to start a startup"
4. ReadWriteWeb’s "36 Startup Tips: From Sofware Engineering to PR and More!"