The module’s over. Though it hardly feels like it. I loved the module. It’s the only one from this semester that didn’t require me to pick up a textbook or a set of notes and spend hours reading pointless paragraphs. This module was real. It’s what college should be about. What’s the point of all that academic knowledge and skill-sets if you don’t learn how to apply them in the real world?
To be honest, I did not go out of the way to learn coding. In fact, I didn’t even pick up a single language. The decision was a choice I made despite mounting pressure from Prof Ben at the start and then peer appraisals indicating that it’d be good if I knew coding as well. Thankfully, I have absolutely no regrets. I had made it clear that I was from a business background and that’s exactly where my talent and ability lies. If i could sell coke like gold, I saw no need to chase the coders’ skill-sets. Frank reinforced this, though he did concede that a business person who could code would be a lethal combination.
In 3216, I developed a new-found passion for working on UI/UX. It wasn’t an area that I usually dealt with because I felt that designers ware in a better position to call the shots. But since this project group did not have a designer, Frank and I combined to design the UI/UX. I enjoyed exploring the various possible interfaces and cross-referred to many apps existing on the app store to come up with new ideas.
Communication was another lesson learnt. Initially, I gave quite a lot of freedom to the developers to design and code the app as long as it mirrored my vision and direction in terms of functionality. This didn’t turn out to be the wisest move because at the group meeting with Prof, I saw the prototype for the first time and was completely surprised at the unintelligent nature of the UI/UX. It’s not the developers’ fault. It was primarily because of their unfamiliarity with the newly found Titanium framework and lack of common vision for the app.
The dot com bust back in the 1990s stemmed from entrepreneurs selling products that hardly existed to investors and capitalists. Today, the tech start-ups have made a paradigm shift in strategy. Entrepreneurs are selling working products BUT at unjustified valuations. Most of these products are rarely self-sustainable and these start-ups are spending more than they earn. I am unfortunately guilty of doing this. Touch Appétit was a mere idea that I was investing money and time on when it got taken over. It had a long way to go before it could be sustainable. The Appétit app that I pitched to the corporate clients for our final project didn’t even have a operational prototype at that point. All this made me realize that SALES & MARKETING is still the most important component in the real world. In my meetings with the firm that acquired Touch Appétit, I would often rave about building a functional and powerful product. But their CEO would often halt me, correct me and say it’s about selling the product and earning revenue.
Sales = Income.
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