I’ve now been running our window quoting software for about a year. It was licensed by a small manufacturer of vinyl windows in central Washington, and distributed to their customers as a fast way to get a price on a quote. In honor of the one year anniversary of this launch I thought I would take a quick look at how we did.

I think the most difficult part looking back was the support load for the project. I utilized a chat window application that was linked to my phone and was able to provide support in real time. This support burden certainly chewed into my development hours, but it created really loyal users. If I had to give any advice to those in my shoes trying to get a first year product off the ground, it is provide fantastic support. Your V1 launch isn’t going to do everything they want it to do, it’s going to have some bugs, and likely massive usability issues. The most important thing you can do is to make sure your customers know that you effing love them. That whatever is giving them trouble is keeping you up at night, and that although the product isn’t perfect, it is noticeably getting better every week.

I also got the chance to talk with the people who are using the software I built every day. I was actively taking part in creating evangelists for my product. After all, is there any better support than having a direct line to the lead developer?