thinking-out-loud-ep1

The speaker, Leo, introduces himself as a software engineer and talks about his podcast called "Thinking Out Loud." He mentions his idea for a childcare provider's digital platform that aims to improve upon existing applications in the market. Leo discusses the features he envisions for the app, such as communication channels, integration with accounting software, and readiness for inspections. He also mentions his considerations for pricing and the need to deliver a better application rather than compete on price. Leo plans to make a decision soon and hopes to have a minimum viable product by the end of the summer. In future episodes, Leo plans to discuss software development, career progression, standing out in interviews, mental health, and family. He encourages listeners to provide feedback and suggestions. Hey, hello everyone. My name is Leo. I'm creating this podcast or better yet note-taking for me just to put my thoughts out there. Yeah, that's why I'm calling it Thinking Out Loud and yeah, let's go. So yeah, I'm a software engineer. I've been playing with development for the past six years almost. Went from an employer or better yet an employee to a freelancer and now I'm doing contract work. At the same time, I'm trying to help other developers improve their careers, their communication skills and yeah, that's it. What I want to talk about today is one app idea I have. So I have my own company which at the moment it's just me working there but I plan on contracting or hiring better saying another developer to work on an application idea that I had and that's basically a childcare provider's digital platform for the baby ones. And yeah, the idea came from my son's school has one application that the parents can use and the teachers using the school where they basically record everything our kids do in terms of what they eat, if they fell, if they hurt themselves or for example if they have a new activity they're going to do next day or something like that. So basically everything that happens around our kids and the school gets logged into the applications and then parents can see all the records from their child and they receive notifications from important things they can work on. So basically the idea came from that because being a software developer I noticed a lot of issues with the current application that they are using. So for example the notifications fail most of the times, other times they just come as emails instead of push notifications. So there's a bunch of issues around that application that I think I can alongside with another developer do better and yeah hopefully we'll make that work. The market it seems to be validated because this current application is not the only one in the market. So there are at least two other applications at least here locally in Portugal where I'm living at the moment. There are two more applications that I researched on and so there seems to have a market at least in private schools where the schools are adopting this kind of applications instead of logging everything into paper and that's great. I think that's fascinating to basically digitalize what's being manually done on paper. I've been thinking about it for a while and I really don't know if I should go forward with this because it's always a risk hiring someone else and giving like a runway I would say six months to see if we can bring a valid application to the market and if there is any kind of adoption, if we can make a profit out of it in the end. So it's not something to go after a quick buck but it's an application that I think can solidify the market and hopefully provide both the schools and the parents with a better solution. Yeah, let's see. Another thing that I've been thinking is the pricing. So currently the current applications on the market have like a pricing per child, so per child per month. So they basically both charge under 2 euros per child per month and yeah, that's already very low and I don't think we should compete on price or at least try to not trying to lower the price to like 50 cents per child per month. That seems ridiculous. My goal here is to create a better application for both ends and charge a fair amount. Not to disperse from what the current applications are charging but yeah, I don't want to go down the road of competing on price and aiming for lower prices instead of delivering a better application. So in terms of features that I've been thinking for the application, obviously all the records that are being created for the child need to be kept for the children, better saying. So the teachers need to be able to log everything a child does so their parents can be aware of it. But other than that we have, or better saying, other than that I have thought, for example, of having a communication channel either by voice or video so that parents can easily have a quick call or a video call with a teacher or someone from the board or if they want to show something about how a child, for example, he fell off and he has a cut in his hand and they want to show it to the parents so they can decide whether it's better to pick them up and go to the hospital or not. So I think that's one of the selling points. Also having a connection or better saying an integration with the accounting softwares that are currently working in Portugal. So there are a few and I think that being able to integrate with them would be easier so the schools can invoice the parents normally on a monthly basis and everything would show in the application just fine. The parents could download the invoices, see the due dates, all that stuff. Another thing that I think can be a good selling point is having some kind of feature where schools can be ready for inspections. So that's a thing that I didn't know happened until not long ago. So sometimes schools have inspections and they need to show all the logs and everything that they've recorded for the past, I don't know, X months. From child logs to messages changed with the parents to events planning to kids assessments, daily routines, everything needs to be shown and inspected. And yeah, I would say those, for example, are the three selling points that I've thought could probably make a difference in terms of the current applications. They don't have these or at least a few of these, but I think there's a better way to do it, a simpler way to do it both for the schools and the parents. Yeah, I'm still thinking about if I should move forward or not, but I'll probably need to make a decision in the next few days so that I can start hiring and work on these to have at least an MVP by the end of the summer so I can try to start selling to some schools and see if there's any kind of adoption. So moving on from the application, that was the first idea that came up to mind. So I had no script for this, but that's what came up to my mind because it was fresh. I had a meeting today with a developer to talk about this. So yeah, that's where I started from. But basically, going forward with these Thinking Out Loud sessions, what I would probably focus on talking is, I would say, three to four topics, starting from software development, obviously. That's my area of focus. That's what I love to do. That's what I enjoy doing. And I would love to talk more about my progress until now, where it all started, the different kinds of projects that I've worked on, and so on. At the same time, I would like, and I think I'll probably talk about this a few times, about career progression. I have a goal in mind to help junior developers improve their careers and find better ways to progress instead of, let's say, staying for 10 years in the same company and not being rewarded properly for their work. Also, I like to talk about different ways to stand out from the crowd, both with text or in interviews, stuff like that. So that's for sure a topic I will keep on talking in future episodes. The other two topics not related to work, one kind of is, or it can be, one is mental health, because that's a very relatable topic to me. I've been dealing with anxiety for quite a few years now. And yeah, work can be stressful sometimes. It can lead to burnouts. And that's probably the part of the mental health that I would like to focus on. Everything else is more personal. But the burnouts is something that can happen. They are very real. And it doesn't matter if you love what you're doing or not. They can happen either way. And there's ways we got to prepare or know how to deal with them. Yeah, and the last topic, just probably I'll put out some thoughts about family. So yeah, I have a kid now, almost two years. It's something from another world. It's hard to put into words what goes into raising a child. And it's very hard work, but it's very interesting at the same time. Yeah, so I'll probably just put out some thoughts on family too. Because life without family is pretty boring, I would say. Work is fun and stuff. Having hobbies is very cool and important. But I would put definitely family on top. So that's always an important topic to talk about. Yeah, I would say that's it for this first Thinking Out Loud episode. Just a brief introduction from myself and letting the application idea that's wandering my mind go out in the world. See if I happen to get some feedback from anyone listening to this. And yeah, I'll try to record at least a weekly episode of this. Hopefully there's time for it. If not, we need to make it. And yeah, if you're still listening, just send me an email. Some feedback or a DM or something like that. So I can know how to improve. Or if you like the topics, I pretend I'm talking. And yeah, that's it. Cheers.