Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, November 6, 2006:
Why You Should Never Ever Keep Your New Product a Secret
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.
UserScape’s second product is currently in the planning stage and I can hardly wait to tell you all about it! Not only because I respect and appreciate your opinions and feedback, but because it makes the best business sense to do so. So many entrepreneurs seem caught up in the idea that they must spring their new products on the world as a surprise. This is a terrible idea. All it accomplishes is putting your marketing back six months to a year.
It’s critical to get your product out there so people can start talking about it and most importantly they can start linking to it. Most major search engines age their links and they value older links more than new ones. Getting your product early mentions is key to starting out with a decent search rank. As a side note, this is also why your temporary product page should be at the final URL you’ll actually use for the product.
The other big side benefit of an early announcement is that you can build an email list of people who are interested in beta testing the product. A strong beta test is essential and there’s simply no way to acquire enough interested people without announcing exactly what your product will be and starting to generate buzz about it.
So stay tuned, once development starts in earnest I’ll be posting about the new product.
Discussion
The obvious question is: why can't you tell us what it is now?
Created by John Topley on 11.06.2006 1:47 pm
I could, but I won't! Actually it's because I want to be sure of the feature set. This way I can do a post with all the details. Also I need to have time to setup the placeholder page and there's no time for it while I'm trying to get HS 1.5 out. As soon as that's out I'm going to finish up the spec for the new product and get everything in order to discuss the product.
Just because you should talk about it early doesn't mean you should talk about it before you're prepared to do so 
.
I'm sure I'll get something out about it by the end of November.
Created by Ian on 11.06.2006 1:52 pm
I agree with John... don't you contradict yourself with this post? 
The flipside of the early announcement is what if you get negative feedback? Will you kill the idea?
Created by Phil on 11.06.2006 1:54 pm
I'm not contradicting myself. As I say above, I still need to be prepared to talk about it. I'm not saying the second you think of an idea you should talk about it. What I'm saying is you need to start talking about it long before you release. Those are not the same thing.
The best time to start talking in probably around the beginning of development. At that point you know you're actually going to do it because you've started working on it. Also the spec will be complete so you'll be able to talk about specific features with some confidence.
No, I will absolutely not change my idea if I get negative feedback. Why? Because most or all of the feedback will be off the cuff whereas I have done the research and know I like the market.
However, I'll be much more open to ideas more specific to implementation, peoples experiences with similar software and ideas they have regarding the feature set (both positive and negative).
Created by Ian on 11.06.2006 2:04 pm
Congratulations on your decision to pursue the development of a second software product. I'm confident that whatever you decide to tackle, it'll be successful.
Having said that, I'm a bit concerned that upgrades to HelpSpot will not be forthcoming as quickly after v1.5 as you begin development of "new thing v1.0".
Just wondering if you plan to scale out development staff, or will you be going into Ian multiplexing mode?
Created by Mark Richards on 11.06.2006 3:42 pm
Hi Mark,
Great question! I do plan to clone myself!
No no. Actually after version 1.5 development will be slowing down a bit irregardless of any new product. I plan to enter a slower release cycle of somewhere around every 8 months for major feature releases.
Releases were more frequent over this first year because I felt that HelpSpot was not actually feature complete. After 1.5 I believe all "core" functionality is there and I actually want to be very careful about how many new features I add. It's already getting somewhat complex in there and I want to be careful not to end up with a big unusable mess.
You will be seeing more point releases with bug fixes though. Traditionally I've just being doing larger feature releases so you've actually had to wait longer for the bug fixes which were bundled. The new plan will allow for more frequent bug fix releases and will only slow down feature releases.
There's no need to worry about HelpSpot. It's still my priority. The new product will likely be less profitable since it's not in as much demand as a help desk product. While I hope it is solid, HelpSpot is and will continue to be the flagship product of UserScape.
As for additional staff, that is in the plans. No timetables, but if HelpSpot keeps up at it's current revenue and growth rates funds for expansion shouldn't be an issue. That's actually a big reason Jamie has come on board, is to push those growth rates even farther and it's already starting to pay off.
Created by Ian on 11.06.2006 3:55 pm
My Tip: A shop and ecommerce solution for ISVs (with customer download portal etc). Probably totally wrong, but who knows.
Created by Dennis on 11.06.2006 6:49 pm
When you first posted about a new product on your old blog, what was my guess about what you're going to build? Can't remember it.
Anyway, whatever it was, my bet is still on that!
Created by Ali on 11.06.2006 7:02 pm
I thought about the ISV shop, but the market is too limited. I do think it's a good project for someone, but not us. We've really learned a lot about selling a product that's useful for both small and larger businesses and I want to leverage that knowledge.
I don't remember Ali, but those posts are all still here if you want to search for it
Created by Ian on 11.06.2006 7:54 pm
Found it! I thought it'd be in one of these markets:
1- Real estate
2- Project Managment
My bet is still on those!
Created by Ali on 11.07.2006 5:55 am
I hope you didn't bet too much
Created by Ian on 11.07.2006 8:45 am
Nothing like a little teaser (a PRE-pre annoucement).
In all seriousness Ian, if your new 'thing' is some sort of extention (direct, or indirect) to your helpdesk software, then it will work. If not, it's only a matter of time before you (1) have to decide which product (or product line) to maintain, or (2) grow significantly to support and improve both products.
I speak from experience. We used to have two totally unrelated products. Ultimately, we dropped one, and stuck with the other (we kept the more profitabe one), and all future development efforts (from that point) were on the one product, or on products that could be integrated or used with the main product. Even though we have several 'main' products, they are all in the same 'space', so we dont have to know two totally different markets.
In any event, I wish you the best of luck, and am standing by (along with everyone else) to hear what it is ..
Created by Anthony Dunleavy on 11.07.2006 10:19 am
Great advice Anthony. I'm encouraged to hear it since I have indeed followed it! I did have some ideas in brand new markets, but I didn't want to throw away the experience and expertise that's been built up with customer service related software.
The new product isn't a direct offshoot of HelpSpot, but it will have some integration.
Actually you're one of the few people who probably know what it is because I believe you asked me about creating it . I had already been thinking of it, but you and a few others approached me with the idea and I started thinking about it more seriously. Shhh don't tell!
I plan on talking to you about it more once I have all my ducks in a row.
Created by Ian on 11.07.2006 10:30 am
OK, I got it.
Its a CRM, isn't it?
Created by Ali on 11.08.2006 9:21 am
No more hints, you'll just have to wait
Just a few weeks.
Created by Ian on 11.08.2006 9:31 am
I believe it is a hovercraft of some sort.
Created by John P. Speno on 11.09.2006 11:47 am