At the start of this week I launched the landing page for Velocity Pilot as a first step in launching the tool. I wanted to explain some of the thinking that went into this which would be useful for anyone else who has an idea they want to unleash on the world!
As an engineer it's probably tempting to crank out some static website using a bunch of front end tooling but I wanted to keep this as simple as possible. I decided to use a SaaS tool for the landing page and for gathering sign up details from people.
The landing page has two purposes:
- Explain and showcase the idea behind Velocity Pilot
- Get interested people to sign up to a closed beta
Building the page
I decided to keep the page short and simple with a large hero image that displays a mockup for the tool. ChatGPT helped with this and I created a mockup using dummy data in Retool.
Retool is a no-code app building SaaS tool which I will likely use to build out the initial version of Velocity Pilot for the beta. I will go into more detail in this choice in a future post.
The result is something that I think quite succinctly explains the tool and teases how it could solve the problem of getting tech debt prioritised.
Closed Beta
I am going to run a closed beta for Velocity Pilot starting in about 6 weeks. The idea behind this is to start to get people using the tool so that I can get their feedback on how it should work. I can also use it as a measure for validating the idea in the first place. If there are plenty of sign-ups then it's a strong indication that people are interested in the solution that I am proposing. I am hoping to get 100 people in the beta.
Progress this week
In the background I have building my personal network on LinkedIn. From next week I will post more about Velocity Pilot from my personal profile rather than the company page. I have thus far posted from the company page and that has limited reach. The posts there struggle to get more than 50 - 100 impressions. I'm hoping I can drive more people to sign up from my personal posts.
I am also going to offer short 15 minute research calls with anyone who is interested in the tool. I would use the time to present the mockups that I have and then get any feedback to understand if I'm on the right track for how I think the tool should work. Anyone who signs up for these could be a potential future customer.
Goals for next week
- add another 100 engineering managers to my personal network
- get VP company page to have 150 followers
- comment every day on relevant tech debt posts on LinkedIn as Velocity Pilot
Tools used:
Systeme - for the landing page and CRM
Retool - for creating the mockup screenshot
Canva - image manipulation
ChatGPT - wordsmithing text on the page and company logo
Google Analytics - for monitoring traffic
👋 I am building Velocity Pilot, a dashboard for engineers and engineering managers to help them explain the impact of tech debt on their work.
I am committed to building out in the open and will share progress on Dev.to. Including what is working and what is not working. Follow me as I go solo from 0 to 1000 users in 6 months. 🚀
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