From Designer to Django'er in Six Weeks ======================================= Presented by Tracy Osborn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Start out on the right foot: * If you can, spend 100% of your time on your project. * Have a large savings account, low debt. * Make sure you're having fun. * Success can be just launching the app. * Be focused and optimistic before you start. .. Cofounders are awesome, but no cofounder is better than the wrong cofounder. 2. Launch as fast as possible: * What can you take out? * Launch tiny bits to keep motivated. * Work on the hard stuff first. * Spent as little time as possible on learning, as much on building. * Launch with bad code (really, it's okay). 3. Have a plan for monetization 4. Don't be forever alone: * Talk to friends. * Don't be prideful; accept help. * NDAs suck. * Surround yourself with good people & resources. 5: Take shortcuts: * Django is plug & play * South, django-registration, django-profiles, sorl-thumbnail, django-debug-toolbar, djangopackages * dotCloud * virtualenv, pip 5.5 Design shortcuts: * themeforest * 99designs (quick logos only) * "The Non-designer's Design Book" * Create a coming-soon page. Q&A --- 1. Django/Python rough edges? * Review logic first (when learning). * Had lots of people to ask questions to. Removed most (all?) speed bumps. 2. Why choose Django and stay with it? * Chose Python, really, not just Django. * Django provides for lazy developing :) 3. How did you find customers? * Cold emailing for the vendors. * Blogs and promotion help a lot. 4. How to rein in a designer that likes to design hard-to-build items? * Make him build it! * Pluggables never exactly match. 5. How far did your roadmap go? * Not far at all.