Editing The Pen Addict 239/transcript (section)

== Product Development ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Because it's such a big expense. And it's from, like, you're ordering it from a company in another country in different languages. And it's all just, like, this big thing for me. But in a way, like, this is part of what I'm excited about. That it's going to be this thing that I have to do to achieve a goal of mine. Yeah. And, you know, the goal is not just, like, ordering it. It's also getting the money for it. Absolutely. Like, I'm not just going to buy this thing blind. Like, I need to earn that money somehow. And, you know, part of it is in doing something I should have done a long time ago. Which is clearing out the amount of field notes that I have. That's going into the fund. And then I'm going to find some other way to invest the rest of the money before I buy this thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, I'm leveling up this year. I haven't seen that one before. So, that's really hot. I'm drooling over that. Like, I can't buy that. Like, I'm not allowed to buy that, right? No. Because I have enough. But it's really, really, really special. That's a good one. Nice job.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, there you go. Talking about special things. Mm-hmm. You've been doing what you do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I put this in there because I want to talk about that. Right? So, this is related to Knock and us building a new product and sharing teaser things. And what made me want to put this in there was I listened to your show with our good friends, Dan and Tom from Studio Neat. Thoroughly considered. Mm-hmm. Episode 22, I want to say. I didn't link it in the show notes. Great episode. Some really interesting and heartfelt comments from Dan at the beginning of that show. I actually messaged him after listening to that. I was like, wow, dude, you are in my head. Like, I'm feeling like the same thing. Like, it's challenging to continually come up with new products. And it's nerve-wracking to when you commit to something as if it's going to be successful. Like, when it's your livelihood. Right? We're not doing this for some other business. We're not designing for someone else. Right? We're designing because it directly affects our bottom line, if you will. So, you know, at Knock, we're known for making lots of prototypes, teasing them on Instagram. And we're making one right now. You know, we've done some in the past that have not come through. And we're making one right now that we feel really good about. And we think it's going to happen. And my question is, do I talk more about this journey? Because this is a different thing we're embarking on. It's a case that fits traveler-sized notebooks. Which is something we've been asked for. And, you know, I know a lot of people really would prefer, like, an A5 or an A6 case first. And those will probably happen down the line. Especially if we get this case right. It's an easy switch to manipulate the size. Folio! I know, right? So, it's like, do I, like, go really deep into the building of this product? Which is kind of something I want to explore. Or, but then, there is a 25% chance it doesn't happen. You know, a fairly high percentage, I would say.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But this is such a different product for us and what we're going to do around it. It's like, do people want to hear all the things that kind of go into what we're doing? And it might not happen. It's like, it's really, really tough, like, to decide. It's like, I really want to talk about this project. It's a really long ways out. And there's a chance it might fail.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What? Why might it fail?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, just, I don't know how much it's going to cost yet. You know, that kind of thing. You know, how is the construction really going to do what we want to do? Because it's a zippered case, which will blow, in my opinion, anything, any of the travelers or photories or any of that stuff out of the water in my book. Because it's a zip. And Jeff and I are going through all these things. I mean, we've got colors and labels and naming and, you know, like, numbering conventions. Like, it's going to be like a system. This is going to be like a big project for us. It's like, do I share all of that or do I dump it out when it's done? Like, all of it at once when it's done. So, I kind of want some feedback on that. People love, always get good feedback on, I'm glad you talk business stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This one's kind of interesting to me because it could be a long path. And it could be a long path to failure, just kind of like the Obi, you know. It's, like, fun to discuss, but there's, like, ups and downs and trials and tribulations. And I don't know. I feel like sharing and telling the story of how this product came together. Because it's going to be, it's not just going to be a case. It's going to be very different from things that we've done in the past. And I don't know. I'm just interested to hear feedback. Are people interested in that? My assumption is yes. But it was like, are you talking too much about that? Is when can I have it? You know, that's going to be the hardest thing is, well, you're talking about this. When does it happen? I mean, we'll be lucky if it happens in 2017, right? That's how product, you know, stuff goes. So, I don't know. Do you have any thoughts on this? As, you know, I listened to you talk to Dan and Tom about their stuff. How was the feedback on talking about things specifically like the Obi?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, for that show and for like the types of things that we talk about on that show, it's like, it's accepted because up front, everyone knows that's what they're getting into. Right? So, like when we're talking about that stuff on the show, everyone knows that it's either going to happen or not going to happen and you're coming along for the ride. So, like me and you taking some time once a month to kind of talk about a little project that you're working on. I think people would appreciate that. Like if I was going to give you some criticism, it would be that like I think without any context, kind of just teasing these things on Instagram is, well, it builds hype. But I think you might be too early in the product development cycle to do that. Like if you took picture, if me and you spoke about it and then we took pictures and put them in the show notes, that makes sense because there's a lot of context around the discussion. Right. But like with what you're putting on Instagram, there's no context. Right. And I'm concerned that like you guys will end up going down the road of like over teasing. That would be, that would say, I'm being very honest with you here because I love you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no, I agree with that. And like Myke says it perfectly in the chat room. He says Franklin Kirstoff says nothing until they launch while TWSBI says everything and it never shows up. And we yell at TWSBI all the time. And someone in one of our cases, like someone made a comment, here's another piece of vaporware. And like I laughed, but it's like, well, that's kind of hits home too.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I already made the folio joke.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So that's, I don't want you guys to become that in the community because mostly because we make fun of people that do that. Right. Right. Like on this show, we make fun of TWSBI because they tease products that seemingly never come. And I don't want you guys to fall victim to that. But I think like me and you talking about, you know, checking in every now and then talking about development of a product. I think that's a really fun thing to talk about. But I think that it might be better for you to hold off posting pictures of some stuff until you know it's further along. Like, if you're like, we've put an order in, but we're still three or four months away, I think that's perfectly fine. Like, you know it's happening, but like at the stage where you maybe don't even know, I think it doesn't help you to do that. Right. Yeah, I'm with you. So there you go. That's my feeling. That's good. But yeah, I think if you want to talk about stuff like this on the show, like, obviously I am interested in it because I have a whole other show where, you know, where I talk to Tom and Dan about that. Like, I find development of products interesting. But it's in the same way that like, when we're working on new shows, it is very rare that we will, that we, well, we never tease. Right. We sometimes have pilots for shows that may or may not go into production, but that we're very clear with those. It's like, this is just a pilot episode. Right. But we never tease shows that we're working on. Right. For this reason, because we've had shows that took two weeks to get off the ground. We've had shows that took six months. Gotcha. And so there are times where we don't know about that. So there you go.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's good stuff. I have some ideas already from you and from the chat room.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, this is, I'm glad we had this conversation. Actually, I'm glad I threw it out there because I'm already getting like good feedback on this. So yeah, that's cool. Very cool.