One Week to Build a Pro Tier
I am hunkering down for the most intense Shuffle Buddy week of the summer. I am going all-in for one week (Sunday, 8/3 - Friday, 8/8) to build and launch a Shuffle Buddy Pro tier.
Why build Shuffle Buddy Pro?
Shuffle Buddy has gone extremely viral. Teachers love it. Every email I get follows the same format:
I love Shuffle Buddy and I already shared it with my entire [team / department / school]. I just need one more thing. Could you add ____?
I’m not trying to get rich, but my fiancée and I are both teachers, and we could benefit from having one more income stream. I want to keep the core Shuffle Buddy features free forever, but for folks who want a little more and are willing to pay, I’d like to offer a pro version that could serve as a side income to supplement our teaching paychecks.
Why this week?
Jessika is gone for the entire week at a CPM summer conference, so I have guilt-free time to go completely head-down and just build without other obligations. I can order pizza and just work.
Specific goals
By the time Jessika returns, I want to have accomplished the following:
- Enable username & password sign-in
- Sync seating charts between devices (for paying users)
- Add desk colors & labels (for paying users)
- Add payment system
- Publish a privacy policy
- Marketing: In-app, support pages, and external outreach/brand-building*
- Launch!
*I think the outreach part needs to happen all throughout the week to create a soft launch with people supporting my process. If people know who I am and why I’m charging money for the product, I think they’ll be happy to support the work. But if it feels like a corporate money-grab, it could rub folks the wrong way.
Building in public
I plan to write one blog post per day describing what I learned. By documenting the process, I hope to clarify my thinking and make sure I’m spending my time effectively.
I also hope that by putting my face out there, I can continue to build positive relationships & trust with my users, especially as I’m adding a paid tier to a previously-free product.