The Starter Project Roadmap

The Starter Project Roadmap is free and obligation free! But what do you get out of it when you’re done? Alexandra and Cris talk about the benefits and goals so you can know what to expect!

Full Transcript Below:

Cris:

What does your project look like currently?

Alexandra:

What can people expect if they decide to go with that Starter Project Roadmap?

Alexandra:

You may not even need project roadmapping. You may just need to jump into time and materials with us.

Cris:

Sure.

Cris:

What is your journey that you’re trying to go down, and how can we possibly be a part of that?

Alexandra:

So, today I wanted to talk about project remapping. We’ve talked about it a lot on a lot of our videos, and actually, on our website we have two different offerings for our roadmaps. We have the Full Project Roadmap, which has been discussed a lot, but we also have our Starter Package. So I wanted to talk with you a little bit about what’s included in that. What can people expect if they decide to go with that starter project roadmap?

Cris:

So, when we’re starting roadmapping, the idea is I don’t want anybody to come to our website, get a little bit of information about Bixly, and feel like having a conversation with myself or anyone from the team involves them just shilling out the dollars to ask some educated questions, and hopefully receive some educated answers back. So by clicking on that button on the website that says, “Hey, start my roadmap,” you’re going to get a phone call with me to just start shooting the breeze and find out why did you come across Bixly, what is your journey that you’re trying to go down, and how can we possibly be a part of that?

Cris:

And from there, as we ask these educated questions, we determine, do you need to get into a paid roadmapping phase and really scope your project out? I’m not going to be able to answer every question that you have, but I want to get a good understanding of do you know what you’re trying to build? And if not, we can help you get there.

Alexandra:

And I think a lot of times in those initial questions too, we can say like, “You may not even need project roadmapping. You may just need to jump into time and materials with us.”

Cris:

Sure.

Alexandra:

What are some of the kinds of questions that you’ll be asking or that they should expect when they hop on the phone with you?

Cris:

I’m asking them, “What does your project look like currently? Is it just a concept and an idea that you have on the back of a napkin or is this a 10-year long journey that has a project, whether that’s a web app, a mobile app, both?” That talk to each other, like, “What’s the actual climate of your project right now?”, “Are we truly just taking a idea concept from paper, and having to build out the whole statement of work, and possibly estimate or quote it to then get you to build something, or are we possibly building on top of existing code, legacy code?”

Cris:

So that’s the first thing, “Do you have existing code?”, “Is this a legacy code project?”, “Is it a hybrid?” which we have lots of clients, and I say hybrid, where it’s like, “Yes, I have legacy code.I think I might actually want to scratch it and build a new. But maybe could you audit it and give me an understanding of what I have? Is it good? Is it bad?” We do that, that’s a whole another thing. It’s always, how much do you want to save and how much do you want to rebuild? Is the basis of the conversation.

Cris:

From there, I can ask determining questions like, “Do you have an existing budget?”, “Is this your first time developing a project, or have you been doing this for 10 years because you are a seasoned CTO at Google?” or whatever it is, “What kind of timelines do you have for this?” I need to know for your customers and for the people that you answer to, when do these products need to get to market that we’re trying to build. Because I can determine the best solution on a phased approach, a MVP style app, whatever it is, to hopefully get you to understand that we know what we’re doing. This isn’t our first rodeo and we’ve built a ton of applications, and every one of those is going to get built a little bit different.

Alexandra:

Excellent. Okay. Some people may be a little bit nervous hopping on the phone and talking with you about some of these details. Can they sign an NDA before they get on the phone with you? Do we have that available for them? What would that look like?

Cris:

Yeah, 100%. And I always tell people that you’re never going to offend me, because I will ask questions of the customers, or prospective clients, and they’ll say, “I can’t talk about that.” And if your personality is one where you don’t like to say “no” and it feels kind of strange, I would say, “Don’t worry about that, you can’t change that.” So yes, if you are afraid to maybe talk about certain things and not have to tell me “no”, sign an NDA.

Cris:

I would love to have that kind of conversation with you ahead of time to know that you’re in a comfortable space to share the most honest answers about your project. Because by doing so, I can be the most honest and most reliable back to you on estimated timelines, estimated frames of work, all that kind of stuff. Whereas if you are very kind of cloak and dagger about what’s going on in your project, I’m really shooting from the hip. When you say, “Well, where do you think that’s going to take to do?” And I’m like, “Well, you didn’t describe anything to me, so, money.” that’s my answer.

Alexandra:

It’s not zero. I can tell you that.

Cris:

It’s not zero. I can tell you that it is somewhere between $0 and a lot of dollars. And somewhere between maybe happening in a week and never done. That’s how accurate I can be for you. So, being able to have conversations, and they have the ability to do that. When you click on our website, I get an email, I get some information that’s filled out within a form. That’s hopefully going to ask some questions, so we’re not just rehashing the most basic stuff, and you’re getting the most out of your phone call and in a good spot to speak cohesively and concisely to me, and not have any kind of hidden agenda.

Alexandra:

Absolutely. Kind of get the most out of that initial call there.

Cris:

And I’m not trying to rope you in to having a phone call and now I say, “I’m going to send you the bill.” This is completely free. You get time to talk with the CEO of the company and find out if you like me, if you like the company that I represent. I think you will, but we’re not the flavor that everyone’s looking for. And that’s okay. So this is the little taste test cup at the yogurt place. Do you like the flavor? And if you do, then great. We’d love for you to buy. If not, no harm, no foul.

Alexandra:

Right.

Alexandra:

So, what is the value of this type of conversation to potential customers? What do they get out of this? What kind of recommendations do we make to them?

Cris:

Well, again, I talked and joked that it’s the taste tester cup, but it really is. You get the idea of knowing, “Do I understand what you are trying to build?”, “Do you understand the solutions that I’m trying to provide to you and do those two match and marry?” If they do, then let’s dig deeper. I don’t want to waste your time. You are a very busy person.

Cris:

Also, I don’t want you to waste my time. I am very busy too. So this is the opportunity for people to understand that we’re on the same page, roughly speaking, and that we can work together and collaborate together to make the best product. Everyone is shopping around trying to find the best price, trying to make sure the company understands what they’re trying to do. And I understand that Bixly is one of those companies out there. So the more information I can provide to you, and the more information you can provide to me to make sure that this journey works, that’s the benefit. You can, hopefully within one call, know if it’s worth time making a second call to Bixly.

Alexandra:

Are there times when a project is either too small or too big for us? And what do we do in that kind of case?

Cris:

Yeah, there are definitely opportunities where a project is either going to be too big or too small. And in those, we always build out partnerships with other companies as I come across sales calls with people, do networking, whatever it is. I keep my roster of referral partners as I call them. And if a project is just a little too small for Bixly, I’m more than happy to pass that along to someone else that is going to take that project. It might be an availability thing. It could be the perfect fit for us, but we simply just don’t have the bandwidth. So either you can wait and get scheduled in or you need to move now. That’s great. Go work with this company.

Cris:

I’ve worked with them before. They’re vetted, they’re trusted. And there are those opportunities where the project could be too big for us. We can take on very large projects. We have worked with multimillion dollar companies and multimillion dollar projects. However, there are those times, logistically speaking, that we might have to pass on a project.

Cris:

I also have trusted partners that I can refer to. My goal is to get your product to market. I would like to make money. We are a business. However, I know other businesses that would also like to make money. So we are going to find the fit, whether it be with Bixly or someone else that’s going to fulfill your need.

Alexandra:

Excellent.

Cris:

Hopefully with Bixly.

Alexandra:

Exactly.

Alexandra:

So, any final thoughts on this, on the Starter Package that we offer, and just anything about it that you think would be really useful for our potential customers?

Cris:

It’s R&D, it’s research, it’s getting started. This is not a commitment that you’re going to get a bill from Bixly. This is not a commitment that you have to work with us. This is truly figuring out with me what you think you want to do. And just getting to know each other. This is not even the first date. This is the looking at the profile and determining, is this worth time jumping in and trying something?

Alexandra:

And we don’t even put you on an emailing list or anything like that. It’s just simply obligation-free, that first call. We won’t bother you if it doesn’t work out. No harm, no foul type of situation.

Cris:

So knowing that you are not committing to working with Bixly by clicking on that button, you’re just committing on having a good conversation with a cool dude.

Alexandra:

Yes.

Cris:

That’s what I would say.

Alexandra:

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Bixly Tech Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with yours truly and Cris, as we talked about the Starter Package that we offer for roadmapping. I hope that answered some questions that you might have and really encourage you to take advantage of that, because it’s obligation-free and it doesn’t cost you any money. Cris has a lot of expertise to share.

Alexandra:

If you have any additional questions at all, go ahead and leave them in the comments section down below. And don’t forget to check out the description box down below. We have a couple of really helpful links down there for you guys, including a link to our Free Custom Software Guide that will give you a lot of tips and tricks about how to plan out your own app or website idea.

Alexandra:

And you can also check us out at bixly.com. And right at the top of the website is a big button that says “Get Started on My Roadmap.” and that will actually get you a free 60-minute conversation with Cris about your app idea. And he’ll give you his advice, his feedback, and his expertise in that time. So, we hope you’ll check that out. And until next time, this has been an episode of Bixly Tech Tuesday.