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Behind The Firm List Blog
Evolving Prototype
Late last night, after I had shut down my machine and headed for bed (much too late, 1am),
I had a revelation of sorts. No, I didn't see the Light and come to my senses and decided to run only religous websites, no,
I had a revelation about The Firm List.
One of the things I hate most about running The Firm List is feeling "on the spot" when it comes to explaining how the site
is built. I always feel like I have to come up with excuses/reasons why it's not built in some fancy pants coldfusion or
SQL kind of deal. I've gotten really good at knowing reasons why it's good that it's not, or at least why it's good that it
didn't start out to be a fancy pants solution. But until last night, I hadn't taken the extra step back to realize that
The Firm List is still a prototype.
That may not seem like much a relevation to you, but it is to me. It lifts a lot of weight off my shoulders. Because The
Firm List is still a prototype. It's nearing it's 3rd birthday (wow, that's this month!) yet it's still just a working
prototype.
By prototype, I mean that it's still a work in progress. Each and every day I re-evaluate how I've built something, discover
a better way to arrange the information and I come up with a new feature to add to the site. Isn't that just the natural
evolution of a website from version 1 to version 2 you ask? Well sure. In most cases, version 1 of a site involved lots of
money and a large team and was launched in a fully-formed state at one point. Not all websites are launched that way, certainly
not this one. Rather, I've just continually tinkered and developed my concept day by day, and people have found it and used it
in the meantime.
Looking at The Firm List as a prototype also accounts for this "future state" that's always just over the horizon for me. It's
that "someday I will actually do some advertising and PR, and actively solicite users for the site." With that, comes a lot
of burdens, such as increased traffic (and the extra work that involves to maintain) increased expense (and the increased
pressure to derive revenue to pay for those costs) and increased pressure. The pressure (beyond the extra costs and workload)
include an expectation that the site be "finished" or at least fully-formed. For the most part, The Firm List does a pretty
good job of faking that, but the partially-completed 2FND.com, for example, does not fit that bill.
So seeing the site as a prototype allows me to fend off that "on the spot" feeling by allowing me to say: "The site is still a
working prototype. I am still figuring out the best way to finish it. I've just been lucky to have thousands of users help
me beta-test the site."
And all without the tacky "beta" warning on the main page (as a certain, now defunct start-up I almost worked for, had on every
single page of their site for more than a year).
Keep your browsers tuned to this station for details on the eventual "launch" of the full-fledged Firm List.
