Thorborg smashes an elephant...
I’ve made Amino Freelancer far too complicated. I go around telling others to think about usability, then build a service I can barely figure out how to use myself. Here in August 2010, I’m bloody angry with myself, and it’s time to clean things up.
One of the reasons I share my experiences at all is that I make so many mistakes myself. On the other hand, I’m good at reflecting on my stupidity. This time, it’s a project I was particularly proud of that I’ve ruined by continually adding more. You’ll find more of my experiences as an entrepreneur in Iværksætter til jeg dør.
Amino Freelancer was supposed to be my masterpiece
I made Amino Freelancer with the guys in Manila. There weren’t many others involved, and I really felt this would be my masterpiece: Something good that worked properly.
The idea was simple. Freelancers should be able to meet entrepreneurs and businesses that needed work done.
And things are happening on the service. At the time I tell the story, around 4,500 freelancers have signed up, and there’s activity on four, five or six jobs a day.
But honestly: What the hell is that? When I think about how many freelancers and entrepreneurs there are, it feels like a thousandth of a thousandth of the market. And the service is even 100 per cent free.
So why don’t we have more activity? I think a large part of the explanation lies in what I’ve done to the product myself.
The elephant you can’t stop fiddling with
Try to remember arts and crafts when you were little. The teacher gave you a lump of clay and said: Make a nice elephant.
You got started, and slowly the lump began to look like something. The legs needed to be a bit thinner. It needed toes. The ears could look better. You kept adjusting and shaping.
At some point, you actually had an elephant you were happy with. But you just had to do one more thing. And one more after that.
Then the neck broke, and the clay was drying out. You’d gone from something that worked and made you happy to something you could almost just throw away.
You’d overworked the project. You didn’t know where to stop. That’s exactly what I’ve done with Amino Freelancer.
Every clever feature made it harder
I kept coming up with new features. People suggested, for example, that you should be able to keep something secret because a competitor shouldn’t know what work you were having done.
Sure, sure, we could easily build that. And couldn’t you also do this if one thing or another happened? Yes, we could do that too.
Each individual idea could sound reasonable enough. But together, they turned Amino Freelancer into the cockpit of a fucking Boeing 737. It became so complicated I couldn’t even figure out how to use it myself.
That’s extra annoying because I feel I’m a professional who knows what he’s doing. I’ve written books about usability. And then I go and create this mess myself.
I’d known for six months
Almost the worst part is that I’d known for the past six months. I just couldn’t face going back to the project.
I felt awful every time I looked at the misshapen elephant I’d made myself. I’d been so proud of the project, and now I could barely stand looking at it.
I even posted a request for experts who could help. But I didn’t even reply to people properly. Whenever I looked at it, I cringed at my own work and pushed it away again.
Of course, I have lots of other things to do too, but that’s an excuse. I’m the one who made the mistake.
Now Amino Freelancer needs to be simpler
Yesterday, I took the bull by the horns. I sent around 15 emails to Manila with things that needed changing and simplifying.
If you can look at the service from the outside, I’d really like concrete suggestions. But no more features. Nothing that makes it more advanced or more exciting.
I want to know what we can remove. Which features can we do without? Which wording can we change to make it easier to understand and use?
I won’t promise to reply immediately, because I’m busy. But I promise to look at the suggestions. My hope is that Peter Skouhus and the team at 1902 in the Philippines will already be putting some of the changes in place when you visit.
An apology to those who gave up
If you’re a freelancer who tried using Amino Freelancer, or a business that gave up, I’m bloody sorry.
I’m gathering the energy and courage to take a proper look at my squashed elephant. I’ve started cleaning up, but I need help seeing where I went wrong.
When all is said and done, it would be great to have a good freelance service in Denmark. A service where we can find people here at home, keep some of the work and money within the country and talk to someone in our own language.
That was the idea I wanted to build. Now I need to find my way back to it by making things simpler. I’m fucking sorry.
Bloody hell, I’m stupid!!!!!
Dit billedsprog for dælen 🙂 Jeg ser slemme billeder for mit indre blik, der involverer vægge og ventilator.
Min gamle drill sergeant sagde altid: "Knowing where you have failed is the best map to help you find the proper way or method". Og det havde han jo så’n set ret i.
Vi glæder os til at det nye Amino Freelancer!