Doing free strategy consultations [Retro Apr, 2020]
What is this and what am I trying to achieve here?
My goal is to build and run 1+ successful online (software) businesses. Until one of my side-projects is able to support me financially, I have decided to do product design & development consulting as a boutique agency (Pocket Revolutions) in Basel, Switzerland. These monthly retros cover my journey to success for my agency/consulting as well as for my side-projects.
Completely different format to the retro this month. I'm actually posting this 7 days into June, more than a monthly "late". I find it difficult to post retros on time. Especially when I'm feeling somewhat lost on my journey the last thing that seems to make sense is publishing my "results".
In April I spent a significant chunk of my time doing free product strategy calls with Indie Hackers. I made a post on indiehackers.com (opens in a new tab) offering these sessions and I was fully booked within a day. They were a lot of fun, and judging based on the feedback and public tweets I got in response, I think I was able to provide a lot of value. That said, it didn't look like a path to revenue for me. Indiehackers are notoriously scrappy and this was apparent in the calls as well.
Time review
Total: 167 hours ~ 8 per day
15 hours spent on the strategy offering
8 hours spent on applying for gigs (mostly refreshing my CV)
5 hours spent following my curiosity
4 hours spent doing more corona research
15 hours reading / summarizing (Mostly smart notes + Wardley mapping)
2.5 hours learning about Roam
Observations
My time expenditure doesn't seem very focused. Axova app and PR website have a lot of hours tracked, but so does the strategy offering and so does updating my CV.
I'm spending a lot of time on this path of learning about Roam, reading, taking notes etc. But what is it bringing me? #[[❓ Open questions]] #[[Provoking Questions]]
Did I achieve my objectives?
- Axova app finished properly #[[[[🏗]] Axova App]]
- Yes, I finished this in April. Only in May did I launch this.
- Axova app displayed properly on my website #[[[[🏗]] Axova App]]
- No, see (1)
- PR website is functioning properly
- No, because I only wanted to move to this once (1) was finished.
Am I on track to achieve my yearly objectives?
- Earn 200k with Pocket Revolutions in 2020 (10/200)
- No. I'm quite behind here.
- 24 new blogs posts (3/24)
- No, I'm also quite behind here as well. Also questioning whether this is the right goal.
- Get involved with 5 new apps (1/5)
- No, also quite behind here. Also questioning whether this is the right goal.
Review my Journaling thoughts
Proud about the strategy sessions and finishing the app
What went well?
The strategy sessions went well, but I'm not sure if this is what I should be doing.
What should I do differently?
Maybe I'm spending too much time on this track of where I want to be e.g. reading, taking notes, twitter etc. Maybe I should be spending more time on the uncomfortable track of talking to people, reaching out etc.