I was at a small start up, complaining that they were building a science project instead of a product. They seemed a bit confused by the difference. I made a list of milestones with concrete demos to show what I meant by obvious and measurable progress. The first few focused on the single working unit they had, but starting to prove software control of hardware (electrical and mechanical). The next few focused on making sure multiple of the expensive-ish units could be built; there was some subtext about making software tools to verify different units behavior. In the product world, that was about identifying manufacturing steps. The final few milestones were more directed toward some of the software algorithms and toward larger scale manufacturing.
Sadly, after we defined and met the first demo, the other engineers realized just how (not) far we were along the path. The start up has closed its doors, trying to regroup. I feel sad about this, I know I instigated the crisis. But it was coming anyway so I don’t feel totally awful for speeding its arrival.
As I’m working on the are-you-ok widget, I’m struck by how often I want to have milestones, something that acts as a demo, that shows progress. Since this is a personal project and it would be more short-term fun to read a novel, I try to keep myself engaged by having interesting deliverables.
Yesterday, I got the accelerometer working so that the LED color depended on orientation (RGB set via XYZ). It was fairly amusing, though hard to demo without a video.
For today? Well, I think I want the device to wake up when it is moved, read the accel, tweet that it moved, turn on the color based on accel, ramp down over a second if no additional motion, and go to sleep.
I also want to try out the new couch. And solder the motor boards (they came! finally!). And verify the old couch’s new location is as nice as I thought. Have lunch with Rob. Go out to dinner with my hubby to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Find my to-do list and cross something off of it (none of these things are on it since I lost it). Buy bread and benedryl. Practice my EELive IoT talk. Maybe even practice the teardown with Jen. Buy new jeans as these have a hole. Oh, shower, that I should probably do before lunch. And exercise. Fold the laundry.
Where was I going? I have no clue. But I should probably get started soon.