Thoughts from my journey

I’m writing this blog using my new iPad. I bought the iPad to be part of our product’s development process and testing. To me, iPad is a source of inspiration on how excellent products should be made. What should be the engineering and the design considerations when building something new.

I guess that not many can create great products like Apple does, I’m not sure at all that I can, but I would like to try. I want me and my team to pay attention to the smallest details, while not loosing sight of the big picture. Make sure a product is as much as enjoyable as it is functional. The generation of functional only product is gone, there is a higher standard now.

I was driving the CA-101 a month ago, and heard “My Girl” song by the temptations.

Than it occurred to me, I told Omer, my partner, this is what we’re going to do differently in our  new company.

In the same way this beautiful song moves me and many more people world wide, we’re going to make sure that our company is going to touch people similarly.

How do we do this in high-tech and startup company, this is yet to be seen, specifically in enterprise software, but we sure going to try.

In the mean time, enjoy this great song!

I’d like to use this post to provide a quick update of what I’m up to these days:

I’ve left GigaSpaces to start my own business. It is a startup company, and we call it SaaSPulse (the name may change in the future). As the name implies we’re working in the SaaS arena.

I’ve been following the explosion of cloud ans Software as a Service (SaaS) closely from my previous position. Many of GigaSpaces‘ ISV customers are moving to SaaS. The motivation behind the move varies, however, one clear motive is customer demand.

To me this sounds as: business opportunity.

In addition, I’ve used lean practices to run a product development for years now. Lean is all about creating value for customers while reducing unnecessary waste along the process of doing so.

While diving deeper into the business fundamentals of a SaaS company I realized that there are many similarities, and various applications of lean concepts into business practices of SaaS companies.

We’re in the process of customer discovery,the first phase of Customer Development methodology. Although I can’t publicly disclose just yet, what is our thesis, we’re getting very positive responses and moving forward into funding the company appropriately.

Till next time

Just a quick update on my blogging status. I was struggling a bit with finding a new home for my blog. I wasn’t happy with JRoller, were I hosted Architect’s Blog for the past few years, and with the limitations of WordPress.com.

In addition I wanted to make sure I’m not making a hassle for my friends who follow me on this blog. So I bought a domain: guynirpaz.com where my blog is going to live. No matter which platform I’m going to use, the domain will stay the same.

In addition, I’ve burned my RSS into FeedBurner at this address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/guynirpaz, and also made sure that Architec’t Blog feed is pointing to the same location.

If you’re curios about my technical decisions:

• I’m using a simple hosting package from GoDaddy
• I’ve installed the latest version of WordPress
• I’ve added the Disquss plugin for discussion, Mobile WP for mobile users, few configurations for the permlinks and I’m done!

That’s about it.

From now on, real stuff is expected.

After few years on JRoller, I wanted to have a much better blog editing experience and I start this blog over here at WordPress.com.

I’ve been using the WordPress blogging software on and off in some side projects over the years and figured that probably WordPress.com would be the best on-demand version of the WordPress software, so I didn’t check much before I moved over.

I was wrong. Although the editing experience is very good as expected with WordPress software, the configuration and settings are way too restrictive. It is so restrictive that it can not be used for professional blogging.

Here are some of the limitations I came across while trying to setup my blog:

• No Google Analytics – There is no way to install Google Analytics. The only option to view the track readers activity is through a very nice graph available as part of the admin console, clearly this isn’t enough. I’m using Google Analytics to track much of my online content, and would love to see it all in the same place.
• No Plugins – One of the killer features of the WordPress platform is it’s extensibility. Many blog extensions were written with WordPress in mind. On WordPress.com none of those great tools available. On JRoller I had to integrate everything by hand and was under the assumption that on WordPress.com it’s going to be much easier. On the contrary, nothing is available!
• No Access to CSS – On the free version, there is no access to your blog’s CSS. Small changes one wants to do on top of pre-defined themes can’t be done. Again, very limiting.

Bottom line, for me WordPress.com doesn’t deliver on the promise of hosted WordPress.

I guess my other alternatives are: TypePad, Blogger or simply by a hosting package on GoDaddy and setup a blog software.

If you feel there are better alternatives, I’ll be happy to hear

I wrote this post when I left GigaSpaces and than moved my blog over here. My former colleagues and business partners took the time and commented on it.

I’m usually not emotional at all, but these comments moved me.

Thanks guys!

As part of me moving on in life, I’m moving my blog over here. I’m going to keep Architect’s Blog on JRoller, but the main part of blogging is going to be here.

Please make sure to update your RSS readers accordingly.