I’m creating a money-saving product — this is its journey from 0 to published (or let go)
It started out as a way for me to be more lazy about my finances and at the same time save money and have a plan in place.
This is the method I use and I was happily surprised with the positive attention it got. Some people reached out and asked how to do the integration part between Bunq and Spreadsheets to which I could only reply.. you build it yourself. What I created was highly specific and tightly integrated into my own Spreadsheet and not easy to share in a straight-forward way.
So I have decided to change that and will create an Add-On that everyone with a Google account will be able to use without any prior technical knowledge.
I’m calling it the “Hands-off Money Flow companion” for now until I get inspiration for, or until someone suggests a, better name. (Note: please come with a better suggestion! 😁)
I will probably exclusively rely on Upwork for the contracting. Some years ago I would have built it myself but now I prefer to manage the creation and maintenance of a product rather than do the actual programming myself.
It will be an interesting journey as it’s the first time I’m building something (out of my professional context) where people have already signaled that they would love to use it.
What I’ve done to get started:
💼 Created a Job post on Upwork outlining the high-level requirements. I’m focusing on targeting developers who speak great English and have experience working with Google Apps Script. Bonus is if they already have some published Add-Ons under their belt.
🏗 Created a Google Slides project overview which outlines what needs to be done and links to Bunq’s API. It also contains the Epics I envision as well as some notes detailing the requirements.
The point of this is to get in touch with developers I deem professional, intelligent and experienced with the technologies required. I will have a face to face video call with all applicants to see where they are technically, and if they understand what I want to achieve.
Once I’ve established I’d like to work with them I ask them to provide me with an estimation of work so we can start looking at details. This exercise should bring us to a point where we can talk about price. I will expect a fixed-price for the MVP. The developer building the Add-On will be well-positioned to get any ad-hoc work or maintenance requests afterward.
My idea is to provide a model where basic functionality is free and premium use is, well, part of a premium model. I have verbal buy-in that there is interest enough for this to warrant a purchase. Coincidentally this also means I will take the step to actually pay myself to produce this 💪
Even if no-one ends up wanting to pay for it I find it extremely fun and exciting to build something which provides value. I’m looking at this as simply a hobby and something to learn from. It’s somehow a great amalgamation of my previous experience in software and Fintech, as well as my general drive towards crafting great things of value.
Conclusion
I hope this is and will be of interest. I will document what I deem noteworthy here but am always up for hearing what you would find interesting in this process. I’m conscious of the fact that some people reading this might not know what terms like Fintech, Upwork, API integration, etc mean and I’d be happy to explain if it turns out that would bring more value.
