DEV Community: Dan Parry

Start with Why - How to build your brand

Dan Parry — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 13:02:21 +0000

In a recent episode of the Startup Architects, we spoke with branding guru Clara Jungblut about the concept of starting with why, and how to build and communicate your brand. We took a deep dive into everything discussed in the post here today, you can find the full episode here:

Starting with why

Startup's are built on innovation. Some wonderful products have found their way into our lives that came from only a few bright sparks with little more than an idea, but a good idea doesn't make a successful company. If we want people to buy our product or use our platform we need them to understand why it exists, why they need it and why they should pay for it. To communicate this effectively we need first to understand ourselves, not only what we are building or how we are going to build it, but why we are doing so.

Having a real understanding of your "why" and communicating it effectively both internally and externally will take your start up from a great idea, to a great brand.

How, What and Why

You may be familiar with Simon Sinek's golden circle concept - that all products have a how, a what and a why, with the why being the central and starting point.

The problem far to often is the how and what are far too easy to prioritize. You may have a fantastic idea for an app that sells shoes for chickens, and know exactly how to build and deploy it inside a rainy weekend, but without thinking about why chickens would even want this app, you're only wasting time.

Identifying why you are building your product, the problem it is going to solve and who it is going to solve it for, will help you identify your target audience quicker, reduce development redundancies and establish your product in the minds of consumers as a worthy purchase.

This isn't just a marketing or product theory, there is biology behind it. Explaining the how and the what of a product will help people understand the functional information of what it does. In this process the neo cortex is engaged, the part of the brain responsible for reasoning and language. The why however, is what drives behaviour, explaining the why of a product evokes the Limbic system, the part of our brain in which our intuition and decision making abilities lie. Interesting this part of the brain is not connected to our speech, so often an audience member may not be able to articulate what it is they love about a product, but people do what feels right.

The How and the What are of course important, but it takes all three to create a complete package. On one hand an audience will understand the features and purpose of your product, but also that it feel right. Many companies tend to neglect communicating their why and suffer as a result. Great companies are great at communicating their why.

Communicating externally

Not everyone will inherently understand the need for your product just because it exists. It may seem unnecessary to sit down and identify why you are building your app or platform, but this is the trap that many startups fall into. Assuming audiences will be on board is a dangerous road.

To put it into context, lets take a look at an industry that doesn't need to explain their whys to us- Gyms. A fitness studio is able to advertise "X amount of classes and facilities" without explaining to us the benefits of good health, because we as consumers already know the why of working out. We see the functional data of what they are offering and how we will interact with it and our brain fills in the rest. This is not true for startups!

Startups are built on innovation, your idea is very likely solving a problem no-one has solved yet. Or if it has been attempted, it obviously hasn't been done successfully or your company wouldn't get far. So it is especially important to be able to effectively communicate exactly what the product is and why people need it in their lives.

Communicating internally

Communicating to your audience why they need to buy your product is one side of the coin. A strong brand and a loyal customer base generates the revenue you need to survive and grow, but internal understanding of your vision, your values, and your why is just as important to a successful startup.

It is difficult to make a group of people all pull in the same direction, but if every team member is made aware of the same clearly defined vision when they are onboarded, then the whole team will understand why they do what they do. People will love what they do if they understand and believe in why they are doing it. A team working towards the same goal is much stronger than a set of individuals moving on their own.

If your values and your directions change, make sure this is clearly communicated throughout your staff. Set clear channels of communication for questions and updates. Forming this emotional bond between your team and the product will create a healthy and productive environment.

Its the full package

No single point we have covered is more important than any other, it is about create a complete brand for your product. That starts with thinking about your why, building your mission statement, and setting company values from there and then moving onto the how and what you will do. Its about communicating all of this effectively to your target audience, helping consumers and users understand the value you bring to their lives and the need for your product. Finally its about making sure your team and staff are always on board with your vision, making sure everyone is moving in the same direction.

Communication is a hugely important part of the success of any company, but startups especially have to work hard to make sure their idea is accessible.

For more tips and advice on how to build your startup, from everything to team building to choosing the right tech stack, check out the podcast here:
https://dev.to/startup-architects

And you kind find out more about how to build your startup at Codesphere.com

Svelte - JS's smallest next big thing

Dan Parry — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:06:30 +0000

The TL;DR here is that Svelte is an easy-to-learn JS framework/compiler with clear and clean syntax. It has no boilerplate and doesn't use a virtual DOM. If you are already a Vue or React developer, I recommend taking a look.

Svelte is an open-source framework for building dynamic user interfaces. A direct competitor to React, Vue, and Angular. Svelte is newer, but in terms of core functionality, it's very similar. Things like conditional rendering of HTML, creating DOM elements based on data, dynamically updating the DOM from variables, or any other functions you might expect to find in a dynamic framework, are in Svelte. The first big difference comes down to the use of a virtual DOM - Svelte doesn't use one.

What is a DOM/virtual DOM and why is this important?
The DOM is a representation of the HTML rendered by the browser, displayed as a tree. A virtual DOM is a copy of this tree that is used to control when and what changes are passed on to the real DOM.
Why is this important? Well, if you are using a framework like React or Vue and you make a change to an element in your code (document.createElement, document.apendChild, etc), you make it to the virtual DOM. A diff comparison to the real DOM is then made and only the text in the affected object is updated. Svelte on the other hand removes this middle man by compiling directly to the core JS element. This makes Svelte more of a compiler than a traditional framework. It also means there is also nothing of Svelte bundled into the final production files, it's just plain, human-readable JS commands.

<script>
    let name = 'there';
</script>

<h1>Hello {name}!</h1>

Advantages of Svelte

It's really easy to pick up and start learning: the syntax is clean and clear. There is no convoluted way of accessing a variable and making it reactive for example. I'm not saying there is no advantage to the complexity you might find in other frameworks but in terms of learning a new framework, Svelte shines with its simplicity. There is also some good documentation to get stuck into when you start.

Converting the JS at build time instead of interpreting your app at run time, means there is less loading when you first run the app. The bundle size is also much smaller. When you put a Vue app into production, for example, Vue needs to be of your application because it needs to make that diff comparison as part of the virtual DOM method.

There are no boilerplates. Svelte just a regular JS script tag in your single file component, no template tag is needed. You can have a style tag if you want, which is again just HTML, CSS, and JS, but if you don't have any styling, just don't add it. The same goes for JS, if you don't have any just don't add it, it will still render as a Svelte file.

<script>
    let name = 'Kenobi';
    function update() {
        name = 'Svelte';
    }
</script>

<h1 on:click={update}>General {name}</h1>

Future maintenance is easier to make. If for whatever reason, you need to come back and make an edit to your app 3-4 years down the line, it's doable. A happy symptom of Svelte's approach to DOM manipulation is that you're just going to have the JS to edit, whereas a Vue or React project will need you to edit the framework.

Svelte vs vanilla JS

You might be thinking that you can do most of what Svelte is offering with vanilla JS, so let's quickly address that. The difference is Svelte manages all the small tasks for you. Let's say you want to show or hide an element, in vanilla you have to do that with a JS command from the UI. With Svelte you can just use an if statement, inside the HTML. It's much faster and easier to write dynamic UIs and that's its value.

On that note, if you can do things like that in vanilla that's a great skill to have, it's only going to give you have a strong base to work with any framework. Most new devs may not put the time into learning the fundamentals so deeply when there are so many tools out there to jump ahead.

Svelte is more than worth your time if you are a front-end dev or if you're making any kind of web app with a complex HTML structure. No runtime overhead is going to give you a responsive app that works great on low-powered devices or even slow networks. The shallow learning curve means it isn't going to eat up your time getting your head around it and overall it's going to be a clean experience.

You might also want to check out Sapper, a framework built on Svelte that allows you to develop more advanced features like server-side rendering, offline support, and file-based routing.

There Be Users! The Importance Of Speaking To Your Userbase

Dan Parry — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 13:30:17 +0000

Speaking to your audience should be an ongoing process throughout the lifetime of your product.

An open dialogue with members of your target audience or active users of your product will do one of two things; Validate assumptions you already had, or give you insight you hadn't thought of. Either way, it's an valuable practice any start-up should embrace.

The great journey

Think of the lifecycle of your product as a journey. You may have the destination in mind, but you would be wise to use the insight of others before setting off into uncharted waters...

Before you set sail, ask if anyone else has been in the direction you intend to head to, check the map, is it unexplored territory or an established trade route? Ask around for tales of others that have set off in that direction only to never be seen again.

You may quickly find out your map just hasn't been updated, and a settlement has long been set up there, killing your dreams of trailblazing before you even begin. Maybe you'll hear tales of lost treasure waiting for someone canny enough to reach out and claim it, but if you don't bother to ask how will your ever know. It would be foolish to simply set off in a random direction, just as it would be foolish to build a product without speaking to your audience.

Once you've built your minimum viable vessel and made it clear to all which direction you intend to go, others may want to join you - explorers, adventurers, or any who stand to gain from your venture. These passengers are your first users, and their input will be your most valuable lifeline in staying the course.

Use the expertise and experience of those who have sailed similar waters. If most of your crew is telling you there is a hole in the ship, it might be worth listening. Be sure not to lock yourself in the captain's quarters and assume you'll all arrive safely - make sure there are clear communication channels between you and those who are on the journey with you.

Even if you do arrive at the golden shores of PMF - do the settlers like the new town hall you built them? Or did you just drain all of your resources into a feature that, you thought would be cool, but ultimately serves no purpose.

In the end it's your journey, but at all stages, open dialogue will serve to keep you on the right path and mitigate as many mistakes as possible.

Communication is key

In the early days, getting out in front of potential customers is going to help you find out; if the problem is even real, what the current market solutions are, and if there is a desire for your solution at all.

Just because you identify a problem, it doesn't mean anyone wants to pay you to fix it.

Once you're up and running, there is no better resource for feedback than the people using your product every day. While you cannot satisfy every wish your customers may have, ignoring their input will push users to stop pointing out otherwise key issues, or worse, leave your platform altogether.

If you're not listening to your users you will likely end up building things nobody is asking for while leaving already broken features by the wayside.

Maintaining open channels of communication, alongside intelligent and sensible processing of the feedback, is the best way to build trust and loyalty with your users, promote healthy growth and build a product or platform people want to use.

Happy Sailing!