I’ve always been a proponent of learning by experience. The best way to get familiar with something new is to dive right in and try not to hurt yourself. It is for this reason that in my junior year of college, my team in our “weed out” design course (hilarious looking back at that as a weed-out course) chose Java and Eclipse as a platform for development. I didn’t really have any direction at that point in college, but knew that Java was used widely in the software engineering world, so better late than never to learn it.

The project ended up working *alright, *and I definitely came away with a greater understanding of the language as a whole and the tools necessary to succeed with it. The project opened my eyes to a new world of abstraction, which became a buzzword in my circle of friends, and led me to eventually (after some formal Java instruction) get a position as a Co-Op developing web tools in Grails.

I’m now embarking on a new journey that involves a similar goal: enhance a skill set through exploration and experimentation. I was contacted by a couple of close friends several months ago interested in developing a mobile app. They were looking for a developer to help out and experience the glitz and glam of the startup scene, and apparently I was the best they could find. The offer was tantalizing, zero dollars in exchange for a ton of work, so obviously I couldn’t refuse. What has followed has been a fun, and sometimes stressful, experience which I believe has made me a better person and strengthened my creativity. Let me share my lessons learned up to this point, and hopefully they will help provide a little inspiration and/or motivation to you!

Being part of a three man team on a quest for world domination in the realm of mobile social trivia apps has been quite a ride. Having part ownership in something is incredibly satisfying, and I would recommend to EVERYONE to at least attempt to build an idea of their own. This is a new experience for me and even if this app, company, my friendships, and my life crash and burn it will be a memory that I cherish. One of the most important things I’ve learned along the way is to keep the excitement in line. I find myself up in the wee hours of the morning staring at StackOverflow because I know I’m minutes (read: hours) away from a solution to a problem, and all that ends up doing is frustrating me and causing a terrible morning at work the following day. Startups and projects are all about time and resource management.

The first thing I’ve learned to do is create lists and charts for tasks that need to be accomplished. This is probably a no-brainer for everyone who has ever been involved in any project, but with no mentoring and a ton of excitement it’s easy to get caught up in bad behavior. At my full time position we have a very strict task distribution process, and I’ve tried to adopt some of that methodology into our slightly informal process over at Quaffic. I typically write down or make note of the next few tasks I need to accomplish and partition my time accordingly. Our team also maintains a feature list and development plan which is a guide for myself and Greg on what tasks need to be accomplished. It also serves as a great motivator; knowing the deadlines and necessities for a project will push the developers to work smart and efficiently. Just kidding, a lot of times deadlines become stressful and cause a development team to make poor decisions or throw things like quality to the wayside. This issue brings me to my second point, which is to communicate any and all opinions, suggestions, questions, and information in general to the team.

It’s always difficult to admit that a deadline cannot be met, or that a requirement is becoming a productivity drag. These points always, ALWAYS need to be communicated to the team, both to report status and discuss next steps (moving deadlines, changing requirements for releases/sprints, etc.). It’s also important to speak up when it comes to suggestions or opinions even when it is outside of the realm of expertise. I learned about this fact the hard way during my first internship. I was told in my first exit review that I didn’t speak up enough. It was an eye opening statement for me since I normally consider myself to be pretty outgoing, but this was my first experience in an office environment. After this I took it upon myself to be vocal about any issue. For instance, I’m not a marketing specialist by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have opinions on what I like to see as a consumer. This personal experience gives my opinions and suggestions weight, and my team accepts them (but doesn’t always agree with them, which is okay). Holding in an idea benefits no one, while speaking the mind may propel a team.

Above all is to stay focused and keep your head up. A little positivity can go a long way. Insert another uplifting cliche here! Hope this post gives someone some motivation or a few ideas.