Perfection vs. getting something out there... advice needed.

[AdamRyanUK]

Hi,

So I'm currently building a snow forecasting website for ski/snowboard enthusiasts which involves processing and visualising lots of model data. Its been a steep learning curve but i'm getting there and could be at the point of releasing something in a couple of weeks. However it is not perfect. In DeMarco's books he talks about getting something out there and not procrastinating letting the market decide but also about how if you do an excellent job you are likely to have at least good results.

Some of the current problems I'm facing are imperfect algorithms incorrectly forecasting snowfall totals for certain sites...
no log in or user auth pages or no path to monetisation at this point.
messing about too much creating a kind of array based visualisation of temperatures over the whole mountain.
The code is probably a bit messy, gets the job done but its a relatively complex website with multiple views charts etc ingesting vast amounts of weather data.

Would you recommend just releasing something and starting to build up users from scratch / seeing the market reaction or investing more time on a decent product before releasing something?

Has anyone else been through similar processes and can give some tips on how you made it work?

I feel like i'm neglecting the marketing and side of building up a user base which would hopefully naturally lead to steering any product in the right direction if it is indeed something which will have any traction at all.

Cheers,

Adam.

 

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[Andy Black]

Would you recommend just releasing something and starting to build up users from scratch / seeing the market reaction or investing more time on a decent product before releasing something?

Have you had any feedback from skiers or snowboarders on what your thinking of releasing?

 

[AdamRyanUK]

Have you had any feedback from skiers or snowboarders on what your thinking of releasing?

no I have not but similar sites exist. Instead of trying to come up with a new and amazing product i'm thinking of value skewing what already has been shown to work. I used to work as a snow forecaster for ski resorts too and made a couple of k a month just writing blog posts about the stuff let alone having a site dedicated to it.

 

[Andy Black]

no I have not but similar sites exist. Instead of trying to come up with a new and amazing product i'm thinking of value skewing what already has been shown to work. I used to work as a snow forecaster for ski resorts too and made a couple of k a month just writing blog posts about the stuff let alone having a site dedicated to it.

That's encouraging.

Can you write blog posts like you did before, but for your own site?

How will you get people to your site?

 

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[AdamRyanUK]

That's encouraging.

Can you write blog posts like you did before, but for your own site?

How will you get people to your site?

Hi Andy,

Thank you for your reply.

I would write blog posts myself, especially to begin with. Plus a weekly forecast newsletter which ppl get if they provide their email. The main idea though is most of it is automated so they just select a country and forecast and can view it.

To get people to go to the site I guess i'd use social media, comment on snowstorms, conditions, do posts/forecasts linking to the site. I would also probably pay a certain amount of my salary towards paid advertising for the target demographic.

Adam.

 

[Andy Black]

To get people to go to the site I guess i'd use social media, comment on snowstorms, conditions, do posts/forecasts linking to the site. I would also probably pay a certain amount of my salary towards paid advertising for the target demographic.

Can you start this now?

 

[AdamRyanUK]

Can you start this now?

Yes that element I can start. I've done the bit of the website where I can submit videos and write blogposts.

 

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