12 / Selecting what to work on
How we handpick projects and choose how we spend our time
You would have read this before, but I really believe in this quote by Derek Sivers
Never forget why you’re really doing what you’re doing. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough?
You would have also heard me saying multiple times that we do not follow convention. Because we are a small team and have a showcase of credible work in the past, getting new projects is not a problem for us any more. Most of the work is referred or word of mouth. Which puts us in this unique position to say ‘No’ to things we are not excited about and gives us the freedom to not take up projects just for the need of money.
Here is our internal model to decide what projects we take up
Is the person / team interesting to work with?
Ok I have to give some background context here. Building something awesome means every person involved in it believes that it will be awesome. We know what it takes to design, build and ship something from scratch because we build our own internal products and work with a lot of startups and mid sized organisations. These learnings and best practises are what we leverage with every next person or team we work it. We are also believers in ‘Good work takes time’ and ‘it doesn’t have to be crazy at work’.
The person or team we are working with needs to believe in our approach. We avoid people who come in with the stance that “I’m paying you - so you will work for me!” mindset. We are always on the lookout for people who say “Hey I like what you people do, can we build something together”. We generally propose getting started with a small engagement where we discover how we work together. Within a week you can generally know if you can continue working with the person or team. If not, why even bother making elaborate plans, excel sheets, product roadmaps for the year. If you don’t see yourself working with someone for a long term, don’t work with them. Period.
Can we learn something totally new from the project?
I don’t know how many of you know, but NFN Labs started as a design only company. Then we added development of mobile apps on iOS and Android. Then we did web. Today do we do everything from the idea stage to making the idea live and everything that comes in between. The point I am trying to make is, we love to learn about new platforms that are gaining traction, new design paradigms and new technology. It’s fun. You feel like a kid who got a new lego kit - let’s see what we can build with this. If a project helps us to explore new things and add it to our portfolio, we gladly take it up.
Can we enhance existing skills
Platforms, design styles and technology keeps evolving. There is a huge difference is how we designed iOS apps in 2010 to how we design it today. If you observed how cross platform application development was just 5 years ago, to what it is now - it’s a huge shift. Taking up projects which enhance our skills is a win for the team. Customers also gladly engage since we already know the nitty gritty details of the platform from past experience and can leverage new features and capabilities to make the ideas/products better.
Can we showcase it on our website / portfolio
We did this mistake earlier in our days where we agreed to customer demands like “you cannot put our logo on your site” or “can some of your team members work from our office” or “if you do this quick and cheap now, we can promise you more work 200 years later”. And we realised it’s totally not worth the effort and accountability that the team puts in to ship something beautiful and functional.
If we cannot put our name on something we will be spending so much time on, then it’s clearly not worth it. This decision has worked wonders for us.
Will it be financially beneficial
If the first 4 criteria match, that final thing we decide on, are the budgets. Again if the first 4 criteria match you can mutually discuss a win-win solution for both parties. You also know there is a sane team on the other side who knows the value you bring to the table and is not arm-twisting you for a lower price.
Also I have my favourite gif handy whenever someone asks why we charge a premium
So in essence this is what we look at when we decide to take up something
Is the person / team interesting to work with?
Can we learn something totally new from the project?
Can we enhance existing skills?
Can we showcase it on our website / portfolio?
Will it be financially beneficial?
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