Doctor Heal Thyself

The transition from employee to business owner is really difficult at times. When I was a project manager, I think that my tolerance for product development issues was greater. Although I would get annoyed, I still had the employee outlook of "well, it's not my money" or I would escalate it so that it was "no longer my problem". As a business owner, the only person on whom I can put the problem is my partner - and she already has enough on her plate.

Our developer has basically delivered what was requested. Hip-hip-HOORAY! At times there were communication issues, but in general our developer has been responsive. Well, last week I had the first meeting with the person who is going to spearhead the sales effort. The day before the meeting, our developer assured me that the features which were still "glitchy" would be fixed. Now, I KNOW based on my experience managing developers that you are supposed to add a couple of days to anything a developer promises - but we need Verify-crED launched and in use yesterday so I went ahead with the sales meeting. It was a disaster! Do I have to say that the features which define Verify-crED were not working? I was embarrassed and the sales guy was hesitant - not a good combination. I went back to the developer with my negative feedback, all the while hoping that I didn't dig a deeper hole (how many people have been in situations where someone holds something that is really important to you so you don't want to piss them off, but you also don't want to be the proverbial doormat? That is me at least once a day.)

I am very fortunate that our developer has integrity and stepped up to the plate. Moments like these reinforce my decision to stay with our developer, especially as he delivered a fully functional product the next day. A part of me felt like it was "a little too late", but the bigger part was grateful. I know that many of you are going: "why be grateful?", but when your future is dependent on so many things that you can't control, you are so happy when any of the pieces fall into place.

So, now the present. We are launching this baby! We are in user testing mode, cleaning up poorly translated text and going to present again to the sales guy. We are also now ready to get those partnerships in place. 2 steps forward...