What do you do if you find a need but don't know how to fix it?

[ItsAJackal]

In my industry I've seen a glaring need for a specific type of software solution. I searched all over the internet/reddit/forums for a solution, and even called some friends at other companies that have a similar group to mine. Most of the response is "we just figure it out in excel, it's not great."

I don't even know where to start. I wouldn't want to pay a developer to come up with something when I don't even know what the correct solution should be.

 

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[mdot]

I don't even know where to start. I wouldn't want to pay a developer to come up with something when I don't even know what the correct solution should be.

From what I've learned from the forum, my advice is this: learn enough on your own to develop a simple prototype yourself and give it to your market for feedback. Your first try will probably be wrong but you'll hopefully get productive feedback. Tune your design and try again. If there appears to be interest, then you can make the choice about hiring a developer. Otherwise you are throwing money at the wall and hoping it sticks.

 

[Kid]

There are so called "no-code" tools for apps and websites.
You might replicate what your friends do in excel with them.

 

[999michaelh]

Deleted my message, soz

 

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[Deleted50669]

learn to code, or watch the ship pass you by

 

[RicardoGrande]

In my industry I've seen a glaring need for a specific type of software solution. Most of the response is "we just figure it out in excel, it's not great."

I don't even know where to start. I wouldn't want to pay a developer to come up with something when I don't even know what the correct solution should be.

So, two points:
1) Usually, the people telling you "learn to code" are amiss and just parroting what they hear in other threads, because it's usually very difficult to code up an MVP when you're not a coder and need to work with specific datasets, needs, and actions in enterprise business software environments BUT... "We just figure it out in excel" should be your alarm bells to wake up and realize you can do something; I'm guessing it's some operation with numbers or sets of data/financial information over time that needs maybe a handful of mathematical operations done to it (which is comparatively EASY).

2) You say you wouldn't want to pay a dev because YOU don't know what the correct solution should be... but why not reach out to devs and see what THEY think, and explain the issue anyway? Even if it's just a friend, they could probably think through the process and put you on the right track, especially if it's just number crunching in excel.
I can't discuss what it is and how I've seen it used, but a job I used to work for essentially paid a contractor to build out a similar calculator app to offload about 70% of their calculations off excel for standardization sake.

 

[Tom H.]

1. Get your hands on some of those Excel prototypes
2. Write a functional spec
3. Hire a couple developers to spend 4-8 hours writing a design doc

 

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[peddletothemetal]

Congrats, what you have is very valuable.

If you've got money, you'd hire a freelance UX (designer) and full stack dev to produce a minimal functional prototype (hits the central use case).

If not, you'd have to do the same with a partnership, which would require you to sell the idea and your role in the partnership well.

Don't bother trying to make anything yourself, division of labour, you wouldn't pull your own tooth out.