Steps to Development for Non Technical Entrepreneurs

How to go from idea to product if you’re a luddite

Every entrepreneurship event I attend I meet a handful of non-technical entrepreneurs who want technical teammates. But those entrepreneurs don’t have the slightest clue what they’re looking for in a developer or the specs of their project. Hopefully I can teach all you non-technical founders a few key words and steps to take that will help you get to the next step. One step closer: from idea to full-scale application.

The Typical Scenario

Part of my weekly routine is to go to one or two networking events. This allows me to meet other entrepreneurs and market VentureStorm offline. It’s a nice change of pace when you spend most of your time developing a product or marketing via online channels.

Anyways, as I go to these events there are always a lot of entrepreneurs who have an idea for a tech related startup. And a handful of them have no technical experience what so ever. When they recognize VentureStorm (ok a few of them are just hearing the pitch) they immediately want a developer. There first thought is, again, idea to development. But when I begin to talk more to them, they typically have no clue what it is they really need in a developer. They don’t know any of their project specifications or how it will be hosted/served. Many of them don’t even know what a stack is. So I begin to drop some knowledge.

First Things First

Stop searching for a developer. If you just have an idea and not a clue how the Internet works (I mean really how it works) follow these steps.

• Put together your technical documentation.

Technical documentation is a broad term. It can include a Project Requirements Document (PRD), Technical/System Specification Document, Architecture Diagrams, and many more.

Depending on your system you will need different documents. These documents should cover everything from the programming language to the map of each page.

• Basic Designs

Basic designs are the first step to a tangible product. No code needs to go into these. They could be napkin sketches or professional Photoshop designs. The point of this step is to get a design down and understand the layout of the application. These designs will ultimately start you on your way of developing your application architecture without any code!

A really cool intuitive app to check out is Sketch. This application is only available for mac users.

• Finding a Developer

When you have 1 and 2 complete you can begin to find a developer. It’s much easier to communicate your needs with your new docs and designs. Believe it or not, having these designs and documents will dramatically increase the time it takes you to find an engineer.

Be sure to use VentureStorm to find your developers! Rumor has it that we are secretly developing an AI solution to increase the amount of matches made. More on that later. And if you need help with documentation or design we can hook it up. Just shoot us an email or contact us through the contact form on VentureStorm.