Innovation in Software

On the GeekUp mailing list, some business development advice was being asked for in terms of growing revenues and finding sales channels.

The advice being offered was to specialise: choose a niche and excel within it. Good advice, but the recipient started talking about the problems that come with specialising in CakePHP – a technology framework for rapid development of web applications – and I felt compelled to chip in with advice I think might be worthy of putting to a wider audience:

Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking specialisation means technology specialisation.

Business people don’t know about CakePHP. They know about e-Commerce, or customer forums, or customised marketing emails, or intranets where employees share knowledge.

Talk in their language, not yours.

When I go out and do sales, I talk about using Agile methodologies, iterative development, growing the technology base as revenue and budget allow. We use methods that ensure desired behaviour is captured and tested against cheaply, so changes in business assumptions are cheap to re-factor in the code – i.e. we reduce the cost of change to as close to zero as possible.

They couldn’t give a stuff what I’m actually saying is “we code Ruby on Rails with Cucumber, Culerity and RSpec tests”, because that doesn’t mean anything to them.

So, follow the market specialisation, not the technology specialisation when you speak to clients. Sure, choose the tech you like working with, but talk to your clients in terms of eCommerce stores, bold new ideas, e-mail marketing or super-slick brochureware sites as part of marketing campaigns.

Same as with selling anything: you sell benefits, not features*

All the big agencies I’ve seen thrive have chosen this style. The small guys seem to bang on about technology (or even worse “we only use GNU/Linux tools in production of your website”), and being able to do “anything” and get frustrated when people aren’t lining up at the door – the clients who like those shops generally aren’t the ones most of us want anyway.

* Before somebody points out that some gadgets “sell” on feature lists, that’s not what’s happening. When I say “this camera has triple 15 megapixel CCD sensors”, you might think I’m selling a feature. I know though that a geek who is into this price niche will likely transfer that feature in their head into “I can take really sharp pictures with good natural colour definition pictures with that camera”. I sold you a benefit via your own knowledge of the possibilities of the feature. :-)

It seems obvious, but most people miss it. Talking in the language of technology and features is a mistake I made for several years and am still struggling to deal with as I develop my new marketing material. The simple truth is, if they knew what all this BDD and Agile stuff was and why it was so good, they probably wouldn’t need our services. Now all I want to talk about when doing sales is business problems, issues and ideas and how to address them. Take heed, young grasshopper.

As ever, my business development continues to happen in the open. I thought I’d share a couple of things that have been happening at Vagueware towers:

• I’m looking for a new office. I’ve been desk-surfing at Liquid Bronze this week and last, and whilst my home office in my new pad in Chorlton is starting to take shape, I think something city centre might be a good idea going forward. I’m looking at the usual candidates, but with Fly The Coop taking a direction based on the Science Park, I’d be interested to hear more ideas/suggestions of where to take a look.
• I have retained the services of a sales consultant. If you have never done this yourself, I advise you do (and I’m happy to let you have the details of mine – he’s freelance and understands the software sector). You might think you know what your business does and how it is perceived, but there is nothing like spending a couple of hours over coffee with a guy who understands the sector to tell you how it really is. My favourite quote from his initial report: “Paul is the brand at the moment. It will take time to establish Vagueware instead”. Too true.
• We’re going VAT registered and taking the opportunity whilst changing our accounting procedures to change our accounting platform. All the cool kids at the moment are raving about Kashflow – anybody got any experience with it or others?
• Right now there are 4 sub-contractors working on Vagueware projects, and I expect in August/September for that to rise to 6. The recruitment drive has gone spectacularly well with over 20 applicants – I want to hire them all – and it’s now just a case of getting the order book in a place to be able to commit to salaries for the long-term. I’m not hiring somebody without at least 3-6 months of their salary in the bank.
• There is discussion – don’t laugh – about me writing a book. Early days. We’ll see where it goes, but I’m really curious to find out what the advantages of a publisher actually are given most of the discussions so far have focused on how I will go out and “sell” the book. I could earn more by doing the same but publishing via Lulu. The only big advantage I can see is having “published by xxxxxx” on my CV.

It seems everybody is busy right now. I can’t remember a time when the sector as a whole was this buoyant in the UK. Talk of recession seems to be passing the bespoke/boutique sector by. I hope it’s the same with you, and if it isn’t let me know as I have work I’m directing away all the time now.

Vagueware Ltd is just over 3 years old. In all that time, there has only ever been one full-time employee – myself. I’ve sub-contracted work occasionally before but I’ve resisted hiring because the amount of work I’ve been doing has been enough that I’ve not been able to invest as much time needed in sales to secure somebody else’s salary.

That now needs to change, as the amount of work is growing and the number of products due for launch is increasing. Revenues for the next six months will exceed the total for the previous three years combined, and it’s all getting very busy.

Before I go on please do not contact me if you are a recruitment consultant, because whilst I know you’re different from all the rest and I really should give you a chance, I really am not prepared to work with any agency or recruitment consultant. I want direct approaches from talented individuals only. Sorry, and good luck with your continuing search for employers.

Now, with that out of the way…

Who am I hiring? For what positions? And how much am I paying?

Well, quite simply: you tell me.

This might seem like a joke. It isn’t. I am deadly serious in my approach, and the fact that somebody is prepared to respond to this kind of a call for CVs shows they have jumped over a mental hurdle that makes them a good fit from day one. I’ve wanted to do this for years.

The Philosophy

Around eight years ago I read the story of Ricardo Semler and knew immediately that was how I wanted to run my business. It works like this:

• Everybody in the company can see the accounts at any time they want
• They can ask for any salary they want
• They mostly – with management guidance – dictate their own job role
• Rather than managers hiring staff, staff hire their managers
• Everybody in the company given the above information (including other people’s salaries), police themselves into making a good company a great one

Mix into that the principles of W.L. Gore & Associates where everybody has the same job title and the structure grows into a lattice, I think you can see where I want Vagueware to be five years from now:

• Completely flat in terms of management structure (UK law requires there to be a director, and I’m currently sole shareholder, but we can think through a way out this if what I propose begins to work)
• A meritocracy where the quality of your work is what counts
• Staff choosing their own hours
• Staff choosing their own salary
• Staff choosing their own input into each project
• Everybody is accountable to everybody else in the company, not to a boss who doesn’t understand what you do (even if in the early years I have to pretend I do).

Yes, it’s a little radical. However, I wouldn’t want it any other way. When I talk about R&D I want it to mean “Radical & Daring” as much as it does “Research & Development”

What can Vagueware offer you?

Vagueware has for the last three years focused on developing bespoke software solutions for a range of clients including government departments, charities, trendy companies staffed by guys too cool to go to school, and beyond. The Vagueware Blog (you’re reading it right now), gets thousands of readers a week and is about to be restructured to engage with multiple audiences in a deeper and much more meaningful way within the software R&D communities. I personally am known across the region and within the industry as an opinionated and engaging thinker who works so hard, he never seems to get anything done (except behind the scenes, beautiful things happen daily).

Vagueware has delivered a range of services in the past: Ruby on Rails development; infrastructure planning and deployment; training; analysis, reporting and management reviews; quality assurance assessments of development projects; project management; technical writing, columns for papers and trade magazines; and on one occasion Vagueware was retained by a client to “argue” with their ideas. That was fun.

In the next year projects are likely to include overseeing delivery of an amazing tool for training, a logistics application for a trendy niche sector and oversight & assistance on a project that has major influence in central and local government departments.

Other client projects that are further away on the sales pipeline involve big information architecture issues, research & development using some of the coolest technology around, and migration of many projects to cloud services and the building of tools and services to give clients the best combination of flexibility and scalability in the sector.

In addition, we’re looking to launch Kagtum and a set of associated tools around some collaborative intelligence algorithms, a new project management tool that makes life easier for everybody involved in producing outputs, and in the long run a whole boatload of projects including many ideas coming from our peers, colleagues and clients.

It’s also planned that work concerning industry analysis, training and research will increase dramatically.

Over the next 9 months the company will need to re-invent itself in a few areas to fit around a changing economy and marketplace, and there’s a good chance there will never really be a true “head office” unless you want to build it yourself: if you want to work in a provided office, great. Otherwise work where you like.

In addition to choosing your own salary, work location, job role and hours, Vagueware will provide an annual equipment budget to furnish yourself with work equipment of your choosing. We won’t go out and buy you an Apple laptop and sit you in an Aeron chair against your will just because it sounds “cool”, but we’ll allow you to buy them yourself on our account if that’s what you feel you need to do your job.

You can find out more about some of the things the company does from the laughably-in-need-of-an-update-and-redesign-and-restructure website

What do we want from you?

Vagueware is looking for people who think they have something to offer to come and spell it out.

Skills I’m personally interested in hearing about include:

• PR, marketing and sales people who understand relationships and why Vagueware is a little bit different
• Developers – we’re currently 100% RoR, but all languages and frameworks considered
• Designers with lickable portfolios
• Project Managers/Account Managers who can beat the drum in such a way people dance whilst they work
• Analysts/researchers/writers who are interested in people, technology and the industry because it’s interesting not just because it’s profitable
• Technology Philosophers. No, really, thinking is important to what the company does.

Ideally you should be interested in doing something in more than one of these areas, simply because silos can’t really exist in this marketplace any more and people who like to be pushed into new skills are ideal fits for the culture Vagueware hopes to grow.

Ultimately, you should love technology, society, their collective potential and spend your time dreaming of what your place in the industry could be a few years from now, and be prepared to act to get there.

You should be committed to the company goals I’ve spelled out above and work actively towards a flat management structure, with open accounting standards and the ability o work without keeping your salary a closely-guarded secret.

You can be located anywhere on the planet, but there is an advantage if you’re based in the EU and entitled to work in the EU. If you’re not entitled to work in the EU but want to work here, sorry but no dice for now: reconsider whether you could work where you are. If you want to work whilst you travel, that’s fine, just explain how it’ll work.

To apply, send me an e-mail to paul AT vagueware dot com with the following:

• A one-page CV
• Some links to work you’ve done if applicable
• A short covering letter explaining:
  • what you want to do for Vagueware
  • how much you want to be paid for your talents (we are not looking for cheap labour, be realistic about what gives you a comfortable lifestyle!)
  • the location you want to work from and if you need an office providing
  • the hours you want to work
  • and how hiring you is the best thing I can do for you – I’ll work out for myself if it’s the best thing for Vagueware, I’m interested in your side of the story right now.

Right now, don’t go overboard on this. Go with your first draft – I want to see you writing from your gut – and the CV you have drafted to hand (you always have a CV to hand, right?).

It may be that right now, as in today, I can’t take advantage of the skills you have and I need to put your application on file (I’ll tell you when I do), but if you’re good enough you will get a call the moment I can work out how to meet your salary demands. For now then, keep it simple and if you pique my interest I’ll get back to you and ask you some more questions.

All applications will be kept in confidence, and whilst it shouldn’t need spelling out: we’re an equal opportunities employer and do not discriminate against gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity or religion.

This might all seem a very strange, hippy-esque thing to do. In some ways it is. It’s an experiment and I’m keen to hear from the people get in touch. If it doesn’t work, I’ll be very disappointed, but I’ll keep trying.

I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for you interest in considering Vagueware as the company where you get to do your thing.

Paul Robinson

This is perhaps the oddest promo video I have ever seen. It’s worth every minute, despite being from the evil empire themselves down at Microsoft.

And it is really worth sticking with it until 7 minutes in. At that point it gets even weirder.

With all the production values of a porn film, the standing ovation at the end for a bit of copy’n’paste plagiarism and the closing shot suggesting Microsoft sales guys sleep with their clients, it’s one to file in the “how not to sell your product” category.

Either that, or the shots of 5.25” disks, audio cassettes and the “when we get OS/2, I’ll be ahead of the learning curve” references have just made me feel a bit ill.