Switcheroo

Following on from my recent posts about our strategy for Web Helper Browser (summary: we're giving away copies, we're looking for more feedback), we're also finally acknowledging and reacting to the fact that there isn't enough of me to do justice to both of our products at the same time.

For various reasons, I've been responsible for development on both of our products, while my fellow director Neil Main, also a developer by trade, has spent his time trying to compensate for our lack of marketing staff by chasing offline deals and sales.

The situation has worked reasonably well, but lately I've felt like I've been spread too thinly, and as a result have found it very difficult to achieve anything. My return from LA provided a great opportunity to discuss and plan our structure, future direction, and division of responsibilities. The net result is that Neil will keep his hand in our offline operations, in a scaled down form, but will start to contribute to the development by taking over as Product Manager for Web Helper Browser. I will stay focused on everything online, but will step away from Web Helper Browser and concentrate my development efforts on Oriador Rota.

I'm extremely happy about this, I'm sure it will immediately benefit all our Oriador customers, and should also (within a few months) have a positive impact on Web Helper Browser. It's taken a big load off me personally, I really couldn't see any other way that I could keep everything moving without burning out. Neil seems happier too, he's always wanted to be more involved, it was just never quite possible. I thought it would be difficult to back away from a product, but in actual fact I feel really comfortable about it. Aside from knowing it will be in safe hands, I think it's because I'm handing it over at a stage where I'm happy, I have achieved much of what I wanted to do with the software. My interest lied in the base features, and in making it feel like a real browser. Now that I can use it as my browser, automate it, manage my links, save my web pages, and keep notes, I feel like some fresh eyes will do it good.

Neil has always been a driving force behind the development of the product, so his direct involvement is sure to push it forward and lead it into new areas, I'm looking forward to trying his version. Briefly looking around the web, I can only find advice against changing development staff on a product, but this feels like a positive step and a good decision. I guess only time will tell, but what do you think?

More on Neil tomorrow...