
Vitamin: Getting a startup right the second time (imthere) - luccastera
http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/getting-a-startup-right-the-second-time
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DanielBMarkham
I wonder how much of their time the second time around was saved because they
had already built so much back-end? I know the gist of the article is to
concentrate on ideas and user experience instead of features, but having all
that work in place had to be a big boost for them.

I think some of the best programs I've seen were built once, thrown away, then
built again. Once you start coding, it is easy to put the blinders on and
think only in terms of features and not users. Likewise, it's easy to think of
a million user experiences you want to provide without having any clue how the
pieces are coming together. In a way, they had two startups, one for each
problem. Seems like it worked out well for them.

~~~
gorman
We were able to carry over some of the back-end work from the first version,
but not the majority. Much of the old code was fairly convoluted, and we
wanted the new codebase to be easier to maintain and build on. The good news
is that we're very happy with how the new code is working for us, and it
should serve us well for a long time.

You're absolutely right about how easy it is to get so wrapped up in the
features that you completely forget how anyone will actually use them. From
the moment we started developing the new ImThere, we really shifted the way we
worked to avoid falling back into that trap. We're always looking for ways to
get even better at thinking about new functionality from a user's perspective.
We test every new line of code that goes out the door extensively not just for
bugs, but also for usability and how it affects the flow of the site. It takes
more time to do, but we've found it completely worthwhile.

Thanks for the great comment!

\- Gorman

