I have a question for you

Hello LinkedIn! In my last article (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/old-man-yells-cloud-sergei-bagdasar-ge9rf) I did a quick review of Project Lemons, and shared the philosophy behind it.

In today’s article, I want to explore a question that nobody asked: How do I think Project Lemons can evolve? (Go big or go home, right? I wonder if I can go big from home, I really like my home office setup.) More importantly, at the end of this article, I have a question for you.

What’s Project Lemons again? To avoid losing any of my 3 regular readers, I will stop explaining what Project Lemons is in every article. OK, maybe just a little, tiny explanation (sorry!): It’s a website I’ve built to connect people who want and need things with those who can bring them to life (or are willing to give it a go!). That’s it, I promise.

How do I think Project Lemons can evolve? The truth is, there are multiple answers to this question. You might find this strange; I’m literally the person who built it, I should know exactly where it’s going to go. Surely, I must have a plan. I do, but it might not be what you think. Yes, when the idea first came to me, I had an intention, but the truth is that while I was working on Project Lemons, I kept imagining more and more different ways to develop it. More and more ways it can be useful to different groups of people or organisations. However, I decided very early on that what I should do is minimise guess-work. And what’s the best way to minimise guesswork? Listen to real users, receive feedback, and fast.

Yes, today, Project Lemons is a glorified forum, and that’s on purpose. No, I’m not trying to bring the 2000s back, I just wanted to get Project Lemons in front of you as fast as I could. I wanted to communicate the core idea and the philosophy behind it with the least amount of functionality possible, thus making the least amount of assumptions.

OK, so how am I planning to collect feedback? If you think about it, it’s a chicken and egg problem. (Is that even still a problem?) To collect feedback, I need users, and to gain users, I need to improve Project Lemons, but to improve Project Lemons I need feedback from users. This is why early believers/adopters are so, so important. It’s the people willing to give an unfinished, unpolished, untrustworthy product a go, or even just engage in a meaningful conversation with me about it. I’m very fortunate in this regard. Since launch in late June, I’ve had at least 5 registered users (not friends or family), and I’ve had several people reaching out just to show support and/or give advice.

I look for feedback everywhere. How do the registered users use Project Lemons? Do people raise requests, do people leave comments? Do people open the emails that are being sent out? What kind of reactions am I getting on LinkedIn, or in conversations?

Last week, one of the registered users kindly reached out to provide some feedback on the “engagement report” email. This is an email that authors would potentially receive on a daily basis in case there are new comments on their request(s). The subject of the email wasn’t very engaging, and it wasn’t clear enough to communicate that there are new comments on your request. Because of that, this user didn’t open the email, assuming that it was generic, and missed a comment on their request.

Immediately after receiving this feedback, I did some research and updated the email subject from “Hi {user}, this is your {request title} daily report” to “You’ve got new comments! Take a look ??” which is much more interesting. The title of the request also moved into the email’s preheader. The new subject tells you exactly why you are receiving this email, and - because the request title has moved - you can actually read the whole subject before opening the email. Why didn’t I have a better subject to begin with? I don’t know. When you are building something, your brain is concerned with functionality and practicality rather than user experience and engagement. It’s probably still not great. I will keep listening to you and looking at the data to make it better over time. Let me know what you think.

Aaaall of that said, I do have a few predictions as to where Project Lemons might go:

1. Marketing research tool. Traditionally market research is done using surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc. It always starts with an organisation or an entrepreneur trying to understand more about a new or existing product. What if we flipped that? What if instead of looking for a group of people who are probably not interested in your product, to do your research, you started with a group of people who already have a genuine need for something. Would that not increase the quality of your research? Would that not connect you to your actual potential customers?
2. A project management tool of sorts (please, not another JIRA). It could be a tool for people to collaborate to create actual solutions for a certain problem, e.g. gather requirements, design a product, build a prototype, speak to manufacturers, and so on. It can be as small or as big as people need. Again, the advantage is that customers are close to the people developing the product which provides opportunities for quick validation at every step, and a customer base ready to buy.
3. Business incubator. Usually, business incubators support start-ups and early-stage businesses. The support might include access to networks, investors and mentors, or co-working space alongside other businesses and experienced professionals. What if it also provided access to a customer base? What if start-ups and early-stage businesses that enter Project Lemons, focused on needs already requested?

I don’t know how Project Lemons is going to evolve, but I feel like there is unique value in connecting people with needs to people with means. By attracting more users and listening to your feedback, by quickly trying different ideas, and by me sleeping even less, we will wrap that value in a great product. I, for once, am incredibly excited. So here we are, tell me: Where do you think Project Lemons should go?

You can help me grow Project Lemons by signing up, upvoting requests, adding your own needs, engaging in conversation, sharing content with your friends and family. I’m hoping that with a big enough audience, these real needs will be turned into products!

If you are searching for ideas for your next project or want to enhance an existing product, remember, your customers might already be on Project Lemons.