4 ms·

Who is your first customer? Build your product around him.

by shankar1221989 14y ago

rudimk 14y ago
That's the thing - there's no "product" as such. Or, to be more precise, the product is purely consultative, the kind of work that, say, a think-tank does. The use case is, that a governmental agency needs help with analyzing a large dataset. We write the code, we do the heavy-lifting, and then present them with the final analysis.
- grumps 14y ago
  He's not that far off. You'll have to build your relationship off your first client. The relationship will be your product. What's your consulting experience?
  - rudimk 14y ago
    Okay. Yes, that sounds about right. About 2 years of consulting gigs, with IBM and Cvent(event-management software) - but I've also worked with a think-tank, so I have a bit of insight into policy analyses and so on.
    - grumps 14y ago
      Are you going for a developer type role?
      - rudimk 14y ago
        From a personal standpoint, no - I'll be working towards building relationships with mandarins. But at first, I would be writing code myself, as well as writing up reports and stuff. Eventually, I'm looking at a scenario where we have coders, and we have people interfacing with governments, reporting on our findings.
        grumps 14y ago
        You're just going to have to land your first gig, then expand your way from there. You'll have to knock them dead, and slowly bring in more people. Sidenote - Sounds like you're in the DC area, and if you're going for government work, I hope you have a lot of solid connections because 2-3 years of experience isn't always enough to land much more that a contract workerbee position.
        rudimk 14y ago
        Okay. That sounds a little daunting, but hey, not going back now. Actually..I'm not in DC. I'm based out of New Delhi right now. My take is, that the lack of such a consultancy in South Asia and the Middle East would mean, that my thing could really work here. Is that being naive, or am I actually on to something? Thanks a lot for the offer, though!

Who is your first customer? Build your product around him.

That's the thing - there's no "product" as such. Or, to be more precise, the product is purely consultative, the kind of work that, say, a think-tank does. The use case is, that a governmental agency needs help with analyzing a large dataset. We write the code, we do the heavy-lifting, and then present them with the final analysis.

grumps 14y ago
He's not that far off. You'll have to build your relationship off your first client. The relationship will be your product. What's your consulting experience?
- rudimk 14y ago
  Okay. Yes, that sounds about right. About 2 years of consulting gigs, with IBM and Cvent(event-management software) - but I've also worked with a think-tank, so I have a bit of insight into policy analyses and so on.
  - grumps 14y ago
    Are you going for a developer type role?
    - rudimk 14y ago
      From a personal standpoint, no - I'll be working towards building relationships with mandarins. But at first, I would be writing code myself, as well as writing up reports and stuff. Eventually, I'm looking at a scenario where we have coders, and we have people interfacing with governments, reporting on our findings.
      - grumps 14y ago
        You're just going to have to land your first gig, then expand your way from there. You'll have to knock them dead, and slowly bring in more people. Sidenote - Sounds like you're in the DC area, and if you're going for government work, I hope you have a lot of solid connections because 2-3 years of experience isn't always enough to land much more that a contract workerbee position.
        rudimk 14y ago
        Okay. That sounds a little daunting, but hey, not going back now. Actually..I'm not in DC. I'm based out of New Delhi right now. My take is, that the lack of such a consultancy in South Asia and the Middle East would mean, that my thing could really work here. Is that being naive, or am I actually on to something? Thanks a lot for the offer, though!