Tech for Non-Techies

“Come to developers with good research and understand your customer. If you don’t understand your customer, how can you expect the developer to build features for that customer?” says developer Ariana Waller, founder of Wally Tech. Ariana works with non-technical founders and helps them bring their visions to life. But, many founders want to hire developers too early or make the wrong hires. Listen to this episode to avoid falling into that common trap. Learning notes:  Learn about the users and the problem you are solving before you speak to developers. Use no code apps to build solutions before you hire a developer to test your product. This will help you save on development costs and help you test your product before committing to paying for custom code. Good developers will ask you questions about your users and your business model because they want to participate in projects that are likely to succeed. Even if you’re hiring outsourced product teams, be prepared to pitch to them as you would to an investor. Beware of developers that do not probe the business model and use case. They are likely to be more interested in short term payment, rather than a long term partnership.   Say hi to Ariana on Twitter and listen to the Women In Tech With Ariana podcast here. Enrollment for the Tech for Non-Technical Founders course closes on Sunday. If you have any questions, reach out to Sophia on Twitter, or on Instagram or email.   Do you have a brilliant app idea and no tech knowledge to build it? Get your FREE guide here. To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter. 

“The biggest lie told in tech is that you that you need to be a coder. I think that being able to understand the user experience behind tech, being able to articulate technology, and being able to get other people excited about it, is what you really need to run a good company,” says Jenny Griffiths MBE, founder of Snap Vision. Jenny is the founder and CEO of Snap Vision, a visual search company that works with the biggest names in fashion and publishing. Jenny She has been featured on the World's Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes lists. She was appointed MBE for Services to Innovation in 2015, and in 2019 was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering's Silver Medal for contributions to UK engineering.   The grass is always greener on the other side. Investors tell technical founders that they’re missing business skills, and non-technical founders that they need tech skills. Snap Vision began as a consumer product, and while the Snap Vision app remains active, the company’s main business is B2B. Entrepreneurs often start consumer products, but pivot to servicing businesses, because digital marketing costs are so high. Jenny took a course in management from London Business School, to help her grow as a leader. Unlike employees, entrepreneurs need to invest in their own learning, because they do not benefit from an employer’s training program.   Check out Snap Vision here and say hi to Jenny on Twitter   To sign up to The 4 Biggest Mistakes Non-Technical Founders Make & How To Avoid Them register here.

Making a prototype is a key step in your journey in bringing your tech idea  to life. Begin with UX research, which we covered in last week’s episode. With your research done, it’s time to move on to making a “fake product," which you will test with real users to see if there is enough demand to invest in creating the real thing. To do this, Sophia takes you through the Sprint method developed by Google Ventures. Using this method, you can have a tested prototype in just 5 days.   Learning notes from this episode:   The aim of a prototype is test the key assumptions you are making about users and their behaviour. Even the greatest prototype is usually very far from a plan that could be given to developers to code. For example, an app prototype from a sprint usually does not contain screens like the setting screen, where you can manage your account, or designs to reset a forgotten password. Book 5 people to test your prototype. Research shows that 85% of the problems in your product can be discovered by the first 4 people. You always want to book a 5th, in case one person cancels. Your first prototype will need to be adjusted and tested again. This is normal, so make space for it in your budget.      To get the learning notes and resources Sophia mentions in the podcast, enter your email here.   To sign up to The 4 Biggest Mistakes Non-Technical Founders Make & How To Avoid Them register here.   Do you have a brilliant app idea and no tech knowledge to build it? Get your FREE guide here. To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter. 

The prototyping process is the first step in the product development journey. To go from idea to live app, site or algorithm, you need to test it with target users. A good prototype can get you funding, but more importantly, it can show you whether the concept is worth pursuing in the first place. One of the biggest mistakes non-technical founders make is hiring developers before they have a tested prototype. Listen to this episode and avoid this costly mistake.   Learning notes from this episode: The prototype serves as an illustration of your product: it looks and feels like an app / site, but you don't need to write code to make it. Algorithms in their simplest form can be tested using a spreadsheet. The design process consists of 4 phases: discover, define, develop and deliver To make a prototype, start with research: "Design is not just about how to build a solution, but whether a problem needs solving in the first place. Before working on prototypes and wire frames, find a market need." Jane Austin, Chief Design Officer at Flo Health   To get the learning notes and resources Sophia mentions in the podcast, enter your email here. ... Do you have a brilliant app idea and no tech knowledge to build it? Get your FREE guide here. To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter. 

Learning notes from this episode:   APIs are tiny snippets of code that allow one tech product to be integrated into another tech product. For example, each time you see Login with Facebook in a website or an app, that company is using the Facebook API to allow you to login. Railsbank allows companies to move money around just like a bank would, by giving access to its services via its API To learn more about APIs, listen to episode 37: APIs: Why Uber uses Google Maps   Say hi to Justin Xiao on LinkedIn here.   Do you have a brilliant app idea and no tech knowledge to build it? Get your FREE guide here. To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter. 

Learning notes from this episode:   The bit of an app or site you interact with is called a front end. If you can touch it, swipe it or speak to it, it is a front end. The front end is a computer that speaks to humans. The front end is like your sensory organs: eyes, ears and mouth. The back end (the server side) is the bit of the app that you cannot interact with yourself: it is a computer that only talks to computers. The server is the brain of your operation: it enables communication and stores data.    To participate in Sophia's workshop on 15 May, register here. Resources mentioned in the episode: Article The Non-Techies Guide to Servers by Hackernoon TFNT Podcast ep 37 APIs: Why Uber Uses Google Maps TFNT Podcast ep 32 What Developers Do: Front End vs Back End   Do you have a brilliant app idea and no tech knowledge to build it? Get your FREE guide here. To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter. 

Learning notes from this episode:   The new breed of tech successes today value people who have a strong understanding of the user, not only engineering.  Many of the technologies underlying the products we use today are not as frontier as they used to be. This means that products compete on their usability, not just on functionality. Learn to think like a designer researching an idea. Study people. Understand what they want. Once you do that, then you can think of products to build and find people to help you build them. Do you have a brilliant app idea and no tech knowledge to build it? Get your FREE guide here. To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter. 

Learning notes from this episode: Technical debt is the mess that gets left over from writing code and should be regularly cleaned up in order for the engineering team to work properly.   Alexandre suggests thinking of the tech development process like a restaurant kitchen. Having spillage and potato peels dropping on the floor is a normal part of the cooking process. But if you do not have a regimen to clean up, you will end up with a filthy kitchen that will affect your food (i.e. your product) and your customers will get sick.   Non-techies need to know that technical debt exists and that time needs to be buffered in to the development team’s work to run this clean-up effort regularly. This has an implication on cost because product development cost isn’t just about releasing new features, it is also cleaning up technical debt. Learn more about Stepsize here and say hi to Alexandre on Twitter. If you want to transition into tech, but you are not sure how, join Sophia's FREE masterclass on How To Transition Into A Career In Tech on 26 April 2021. You will see five different case studies of successful career transitions and get the chance to ask your questions live.  To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter. 

Key learning notes from this episode: A product is a solution to a problem someone is experiencing. The goal of your product is to solve that problem.   Different products focus on different metrics, because they are solving different problems. For example, Airbnb measures the number of nights booked, but Facebook focusses on daily active users.  Product goals are not the same as business goals. Business goals relate to money, product goals relate to solving a problem. It is then up to you to figure out how to make money from solving the problem, and thus link product metrics to business metrics.   If you want to transition into tech, but you are not sure how, join Sophia's FREE masterclass on How To Transition Into A Career In Tech on 26 April 2021. You will see five different case studies of successful career transitions and get the chance to ask your questions live.    Do you have a brilliant app idea and no tech knowledge to build it? Get your FREE guide here. To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter. 

Learning notes from this episode:   Venture capitalists have three main jobs: sourcing deals and investing, raising capital for their own funds and helping the start-ups in their portfolio. Early stage investing, like early stage start-ups, is risky. In the early stages, companies are still finding structure and product market fit. This makes them the right environment for some people, but completely wrong for others. Knowing yourself and where you thrive is important to get this right.  Venture capital and entrepreneurship are both united by delayed gratification. The returns can be high, but it will take years to get there and they are not certain. This is why finding the job interesting is essential.   If you want to transition into tech, but you are not sure how, join Sophia's masterclass on How To Transition Into A Career In Tech on 26 April. You will see five different case studies of successful career transitions and get the chance to ask your questions live.    To go deeper, join the Tech for Non-Techies membership community. As a community member, you'll get: Weekly live masterclasses with global experts Mini-course on how to go from idea to live app Supportive Online Community Library of masterclasses Monthly live coaching with Sophia Matveeva, tech entrepreneur & Chicago Booth MBA Exclusive Resources & Perks Learn more and sign up at https://www.techfornontechies.co/membership   Say hi to Sophia on Twitter. Following us on Facebook and Instagram will make you smarter.