Adilas.biz Developer's Notebook Report - All to All - (28)
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Time Id | Color | Title/Caption | Start Date | Notes | |
Shop 6066 | Adilas Time | 3/26/2020 |
Lots of different topics today. Mostly it was just Steve and I on the morning meeting. We covered sales ideas, some strategy, intellectual property stuff, investment ideas, and a full report on numerous meetings that went on yesterday with some of our dependables. Good stuff. Steve and I also drew some things (using the GoToMeeting drawing tools), talked over ideas, and did a little bit of dreaming. Wayne joined us for about half and hour. We talked servers, splitting up databases, automated SQL scripts, and other server topics. Steve would really like to get back to the sales side of things. He has been helping out on the developer side of things for years. It seems that we are really getting a good team and we may be able to let him go play out in sales, where he wants to be. As a fun side note, he is seeing sales more than just monthly reoccurring for system usage. He is seeing setup, training, consulting, project management, custom code, design, and even server options as new avenues where he could start playing. Almost the "Jelly Fish Model" where there is a bigger overarching umbrella and then tons of smaller sub pieces underneath that. See attached for a scan of a post it note. |
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Shop 6362 | Projects | 5/19/2020 |
Scanning and recording some notes from a meeting with my daughter Aspen. She helped me out back on 5/7/20 and we took a few pages of handwritten notes. Great meeting. Recording some of those notes. Got on a GoToMeeting with Shari O. The subject was dealing with email accounts, settings, and how to best handle some of those pieces. Here are a couple notes: - Being able to send emails have been around for quite awhile. Here are some of the project rounds as I see them. 1. Can I do it? Yes, it is done and we can send emails for invoices, quotes, statements, and custom. 2. How well does that work? This is where we are at right now. We could really use more histories, logging, error handling, notifications, Wayne's touch, Russell's touch, etc. 3. The third round might be full automation and being able skip adilas all together to get the emails and communications going. - We talked about outsourcing some of the big and small projects and pieces. There are times that we really need more manpower and skills. - There are waves that pass over all of us. If we watch out for each other, we can help de-stress and transfer the load as needed. - Shari O. and I talked about the jelly fish model - dealing with how the adilas model, tasks, and talent pool is constructed. See attached for a rough drawing. |
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Shop 6712 | Meeting with Russell | 8/6/2020 |
Russell and I were going to be meeting and going over projects and code. However, we switched gears and invited Chuck to join us and we did a small session on some vision for what we want our company to be and what kind of culture we would like. The notes below come from both a meeting with Chuck and Russell, as well as a meeting with Shannon to go over what these two had said. This is somewhat of a mix, but good stuff. - From Russell and Chuck - What they want and/or are looking for: - Group of people that we trust - Able to express their ideas - Big system - virtual floating orbital system/engine (see attached for a drawing from Russell) - Think of a floating city where there is enough room to build and build and each person could carve out their own space. Having said that, the whole (floating platform or city) is run off of a dynamic core engine and/or core structure. Once again, see the drawing. - Each person could be as big as they wanted to be - Platform - Independent model - Build what you want but help support the core or the core principles - Feed yourself type model - this doesn't mean that you don't ever need help... it just means that you are a self starter and willing to work - Incentives and benefits or year-end bonuses - health care, sick pay, vacation pay, new hardware, etc. Originally thinking bigger numbers like: $10K/per person >> 10 people on the team = $100K (original thoughts) - (stepping stones or later thoughts) $1K or $2K/per person >> 10 people on the team = $20K (after thoughts) - Keep the freedom but also provide some of the other incentives that help keep people around - retention of good people - Dreams... having dreams and being able to act on them... - From Chris Jonnie - We support people with dreams - From Shannon - Almost like each person has their own freedom to run their own business, but they have the support and security of a small community - a fusion between owning and operating your own business and being an employee at the same time. - Family comes first - The guys liked that there was a limit to hours... just dealing with direct billing - you could still do your own thing - this includes management in the limit on hours per week. Stay in that healthy and maintainable realm - less burnout. - Residual pay and reoccurring revenue - For Steve - in order to help him - Question - How can we help to split your work load? - Maybe even doing a project to help with that. - Sales - You've got to believe in it - what you are selling - Shannon and I were talking... Think about dad... he really believes in what he is pushing- He can pass on the excitement and the energy - even if it isn't quite soo cool (funny stories) - Seeing a need or opportunity and being able to jump in you want to - They loved - being able to think of something and then build a product or service or solution to match - still playing right along that platform type model - adilas creates all kinds of byproducts and byservices (pretend that is a new word). - Training and keeping that model going... Maybe something like - work 10 hours, be able to do 1 hour of training. So, if you work 30 hours a week, that would be 3 hours of training that you could do. Keeping up on the new technologies - lots of self improvement options - all of these things build value. - Our platform or our framework - some ownership or skin in the game - Shannon and I - how can we focus on different places (departments or areas of need) within the adilas jelly fish model? - See the need and then help to point people in that correct direction - delegation at the bigger picture level - Going back to helping Steve - how can we help pull some pieces off of him so that we don't burn him out. He is one of our greatest assets. |
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Shop 6726 | Working with Shannon | 8/20/2020 |
Shannon joined at 11 am and we wrapped up the prior meeting. Eventually, only Wayne and Shannon were on the meeting. These are a couple of notes that I got from Wayne. He is hitting walls and boundaries on the servers. He wants to keep pushing them forward and tuning them, but he needs the following three projects done: 1. We have two really big tables that need to be pared down. He wants to consolidate some of the fields into objects of settings. Currently, we have hundreds of settings, all in their own database fields and columns. That is ok, but it makes the tables so big that we can't change the database table engine from MyISAM tables to InnoDB tables. This is all related to different table structures on the MySQL database model. MyISAM tables are an older model and if a lock happens, it locks the entire table. The InnoDB tables are more modern and if a lock happens, it is on a line by line level vs a full table lock. There are also some performance options as well as security pieces that differ between the database table engines. Long story made short, Wayne wants us to prep things in order to convert everything to InnoDB tables. 2. Some of our databases are getting huge... Gigs and Gigs worth of data. That is awesome and means that things are getting used, but because of the structure, we can't split and load balance things very easily. We have to physically pull systems off of one system and put them on their own system to do the load balancing right now. This is a very manual process. We have a project called the datasource project or splitting up the database (bus to motorcycles - world building) project. There have been multiple efforts in this direction, but we keep getting pulled off of things. This would be huge and would allow us to change the size and configuration of the databases. Small companies would only be dealing with their data vs being on a somewhat shared environment and dealing with all of the other bigger businesses traffic. You can't access the other companies data (virtual walls and sandbox type environments), but there is basically other traffic from neighbors who are on the same server. In order to grow, like we would like to, we need to fix this. 3. The way we store files, images, and media/content limits our growth model. We allow systems to store and record information directly back to our boxes. That works great for single servers. However, if you plan on clustering and/or stacking servers, to get more power, that placement of those files and assets needs to be addressed. There are tons of other entries in the developer's notebook about media/content, servers, paths, and storage locations. It works great right now, but it also is somewhat limited in the scalability of those pieces. A single company won't see the limits, but the more companies that you get on there and playing with some of the same resources, that's where you see some of the scalability issues starting to show up. Some of those same limiting factors also prevent the clustering, stacking, and auto load balancing pieces. We need to figure out a way to store the files, images, and media/content assets in a place that is configurable vs hardcoded or built in to the app or software package. As a side note on the file storage stuff, Wayne has some code that he was working on when we were kicking around the AWS (amazon web services) stuff. We may be able to harness some of that work and effort to make this happen. Wayne wanted to know what are plans are for these 3 projects. I told him that I would email Steve and Cory and see what they say. Without putting anybody under the bus... we've known about some of these projects for years. We push on them here and there, but we haven't really finished up any of them yet. That's where it gets hard. We can't control all of the other variables (time, money, other projects, other demands, etc.). It's a challenge. //////////////////////////////// Switching other to what Shannon and I were going over... Lots of moving pieces and we are getting internal pressure to stabilize and standardize certain pieces. We have had quite a few of our key players state that we've had meetings and meetings and keep rehashing the same pieces with no changes. That gets really frustrating. Currently, Steve and I's approach has been to keep chipping away at things and wearing multiple hats, all at once. Another analogy is spinning plates on a stick... We spin what we can and hopefully the other plates keep spinning. Sadly, we are dropping some of the plates here and there. There is a disconnect between what is needed (on a management level) and who is playing and what time is available. We are doing the best we can, but we really need some help. Shannon and I met and talked about maximizing vs optimizing. We tend toward the maximizing side of things. That is pretty natural. We also talked about setting up a MVP (minimal viable plan) dealing with our management structure and business model. Shannon and I are going to be working on a business plan, but that could take weeks and weeks (months) to tighten up and finalize. We may need an MVP type approach for the time being. As part of that, we are thinking of proposing the adilas jelly fish model as the current plan. Our goal would be to keep firming it up and moving into a more structured environment. We would like to specify lead dependables and cofounders in certain areas. Those would be the adilas team leads for the different areas and/or virtual departments. I think we could establish this type of an MVP plan for our business model pretty quickly. Shannon and I also talked about a couple of the current hang-ups that we are seeing and facing. There is pain in transitions some times. Nobody wants to take on the full load, if they really know what is going on, due to it's size. Shannon and I chatted about pairing people up and almost doing a buddy type system to help with managing the different areas. We may need to mix and blend to create our teams. Some of those teams already exist, but they are very loose level teams. The goal is to firm that or those pieces up a bit. I think that would help. Sometime "titles" have become a barrier. For example: nobody wants to be the main boss, the top executive, the full owner, etc. We may need to stick with words and phrases like: founders, cofounders, advisors, mentors, trustees, dependables, etc. Along with this... Shannon said, you guys love to create new terminology, why not do the same thing for what position you hold. Good ideas coming in from all of the people around us. We need to keep coming up with our own company structure. Along with that, we need to decide and try things. It's ok to change it up later on. Nothing is set in stone. Think phases, pick and choose, and try storming type mentalities. Shannon and I reviewed this previous element of time (#5295) and the drawings attached (scans and handwritten notes) to get some notes and it helped us go through a great discussion. |
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Shop 6731 | Working with Shannon | 8/27/2020 |
Shannon was a great sounding board for me today. She often takes on that role and does a great job. Earlier this morning we had meetings on rules and regulations for accounting, a small question and answer session with an internal auditor, and a meeting dealing with servers, configuration, and custom project requests and needs. All over the place. Here are some notes from our meeting today. It was pretty much all over the place as well. I guess that is us... - Rules are part of the checks and balances. Having those rules in place create the checks and balances. Those rules help our company and culture to out live us. As needed, it is ok to keep changing the rules. Sometimes we feel like we have to nail it perfectly the first time... not so, we get to keep playing and playing and practicing as we go. That is super important. - We play the game on a dynamic and changing playground - everyday. - Talking about a rigid structure, like the internal audit we are conducting, do we want to be really structured or on purpose, be a more open type model? - If we are trying to compare... our virtual boxes (where you store things and say, yes, that is done) are not a one and done type of box... our boxes sometimes takes days, weeks, months, and even years (plural). - We are doing a lot of great things right now. Maybe just keep polishing and refining. A phrase that works for us is "tweaking" or micro adjustments. - Often we try to be a perfectionist. That's hard for anyone to fill those shoes. - A couple different models that are somewhat similar, if you look deep enough. The city on a floating platform powered by a core engine, a town that has a railroad or tracks helping to setup a town (a railroad town), the adilas jelly fish model (a cap of the monthly reoccurring business platform and all of the services that are needed to support that reoccurring monthly entity (code, design, consulting, training, project management, hardware, servers, data entry, other services). All of these models have a primary element that brings everything else together. Without the primary element, all of the other pieces would only exist by themselves as smaller independent pieces, there would be no need for grouping or combing assets and resources. That primary element is a big key to the puzzle. - Shannon and I were talking about opposites. We said that a structured or linear format was one side of the puzzle. The other side of the puzzle was round or more all inclusive. Shannon kept using the word "sphere". Just for fun... think of one eternal round - not climbing a ladder but working and refining things all over the place - a sphere or data sphere type model. - Going back to world building... If that is our goal, then a model of a sphere is perfect. Lots of different levels and pieces. - What are our priorities? - Seeking happiness vs full compliance. We talked about what drives people to work or do certain things. We brought up the points: some people work for money (pretty simple), some people may even work harder for other people (doing something for someone else), and some people may even work the hardest when they are driven by a cause (some form of deep passionate form of motivation more that other people and money). - Our next few topics got into some mental factors that sometimes get overlooked. Such as fulfillment, progression, being able to take away comparison, and being ok with our own skin. That word comparison sure can add a lot of stress and pressure. - Going back to the sphere concept, not an up or down, able to work on different levels and layers of the whole. All of the pieces of the puzzle are important. - Concepts of the data assembly line - time based, checkpoints, flex bubbles, depth, permissions, advancing the ball as needed, ability to add in flex. - Compassion to self and others - that is a huge thing. Be a little kinder, show some compassion. This is sort of silly... but Shannon and I talk a lot about adilas and business principles in our meetings. We also end up talking a lot about just life in general. Maybe that's why we enjoy these meeting so much. It's a great time to reflect, learn, and express where things are at. Good stuff. I wouldn't trade it. I love it. |
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Shop 6735 | Working with Shannon | 10/1/2020 |
Shannon and I spent another session doing summary work on the ideas and responses from the questionaire about the adilas trust business idea. Lots of thoughts and ideas about the adilas jellyfish (octopus) type model. See attached. Funny topic of conversation - We work a lot with wet paint - Something can happen and then minutes later (wet paint), we are pushing on it, pitching it, and building on it. We virtually work a lot with wet paint (no time to dry before we start using it). I thought that was kinda funny. |
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Shop 6925 | Working with Shannon | 10/6/2020 |
Shannon and I were doing some research and summaries on the adilas jellyfish model. We also explored some options about using an octopus vs a jellyfish. This was a suggestion from Danny Shuford in some of his comments that we were summarizing. Here are some of our findings: Defining an octopus - multiple legs, it can squeeze, run, hide, change shape - expand, it can be very rigid, it is classically a predator. Normally when you think of an octopus you think of something much bigger - or potentially something that has much bigger parts and pieces. Some thoughts and images are potentially frightening and scary, especially when thinking of large octopuses (movie-level characteristics). They are also nimble and quick, not always the aggressors, flexible, able to camouflage, blend in, be hidden or subtle, or can be right out in front. We kept coming back to some preconceived notions and/or expectations. It has a central head or body and has arms or other appendages (options) - We could potentially explain those other options if needed. Maybe people hear jellyfish and feel like that is too passive but maybe they hear octopus and think too aggressive or potentially dangerous. Octopus may be harder to draw if trying to explain a business model or architecture or structure. Overall as we discussed it further, we determined that the jellyfish model seems to be a better fit. It conveys the idea we are trying to share. It isn’t as intense or intimidating. It is really just a teaching tool to help convey a concept. |
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Shop 8640 | Projects and brainstorming | 1/26/2022 |
Brainstorming on ideas to help with adilas, our teams, our servers, our costs, our plans, and our strategies. I read an article on how open-source projects make money. I also looked up how free apps make money. Most of it was from providing hosted solutions, paid support, licensing, training courses, or selling other paid products that support the open-source portion or application. They could also offer advertising, do donations or allow contributions, or some other kind of offering. The other option, that I thought was interesting was a free core and then add-on's on top of the free core. I thought that was kinda interesting. Just for fun, I wanted to see how much would it cost a single client if they wanted to run their own version of adilas. Say it cost them nothing... What would it really cost to get it up and running on a monthly or yearly basis? You would have to get the code, buy a domain name, setup the server with the correct specs, sign a hosting contract of some sort, condition the server settings (super backend level), add the database, populate the database, make sure that they connected (code server and backend database), setup a new account, do initial settings, configure logos, look and feel, and then get a user in and trained on the system. That is for one single person, not even a full team or set of people. You would then need someone to setup other people, train them, and start using the system. I don't know an exact cost, but I would say thousands (plural). These are just some other things that I was thinking about... No specific order. Some are questions, some are ideas, some are reminders: - Seek first to understand, then to be understood - Apply It! We keep learning things... it really takes affect when we start applying what we are learning and have learned. - What if we created a fundraising pitch deck for investors? On our own? What would that take or cost? - Playing with the small phrase "start, stop, continue". I heard this statement in a training course one time. It is a way of looking at things and seeing how they or things are going or doing. Imagine something like this: What do we want to start doing (adding something new), what do we want to stop doing (subtracting or taking some things away), and what is working well (continue or keep refining)? Just for fun, you could also say that saying like this: "add, subtract, refine". - How firm is the foundation? Everything gets built off of that. That is a great question: Do we have a firm foundation? Let's make it super solid, we have a lot riding on it. - Core and then the add-on's on top of the core... This goes along with our concept that everyone is going to need an adilas core as the base level. This came from an entry back over a year ago. See element of time #6629 for more details. The concept of the value add-on core model - with different rings to denote the other levels of add-on value pieces. We have determined at least 5 levels as of right now. 1. Core, 2. Business vertical or industry specific, 3. Custom level, 4. BI or Business Intelligence level, and 5. Enterprise or multiple corp(s) level. Each of those value rings has to be purchased and serviced. You have to have the transactional data core to get it started, but anything beyond that, is extra or a value add-on piece. Very configurable. - Dealing with the core add-on or add-on core - I would really like to make some graphics of what that would look like and even put some prices to that model. That would be fun! - Random side note - I've got so many things started or half baked... it sure would be nice to finish up some of those things. So many things, I get pulled in multiple directions and even lose momentum or focus. Part of the territory of what we are doing. Lots of moving pieces. - Do a quick napkin style fix job - quick and dirty. Pretend that you are solving the problem on a single napkin, after you ate lunch. What is a quick fix? Get that going and then dive in deeper as needed. - How desperate for help are we? How desperate am I? Is Steve? Are others? - I'm not saying that I'm there right now, but I've been there. Literally clawing for any traction or firm ground. It's a scary place and you feel totally vulnerable and fragile. You feel like things are out of control and you'll do anything, pay anything, give anything, to get back in control or onto stable ground. Searching frantically for any shred of hope or positive traction. It really feels like that sometimes. Just being honest. - I think it would be good if we could define our roles, responsibilities, and expectations - within our own small teams. Put real numbers, attach values, priorities, and get rid of any assumptions. This may help with our expectations of who is doing what and even what our jobs (perceived or actual) really are. A little bit more structure there. - Build on what we have - Reaching for firm ground and what does that fear drive us to do? I could say lots here. I've been there. I'll most likely be back there again. Who knows, I may even be there now (again). It won't be the last time. It has happened over and over again. It seems to be a pattern of sorts. - Along with that feeling of desperation, are we desperate enough that any help or progress is allowed, tolerated, and even welcomed? Be honest! - Are we making decisions off of logic or emotions? - It may be good to review some of the business consulting that we started doing back in late 2019 and into the first part of 2020. Here are some link: EoT # 5295 (1st meeting), EoT # 5296 (2nd meeting), #5354 (3rd meeting), there are also some uploads in the media/content section (in the shop) called meeting_with_epic_enterprises.docx with tons of other notes. - From Kelly - We need to spend time managing our own company. Who is helping to manage adilas.biz? - Focus on one thing at a time - Saying "no" 101 - a no sandwich - Yes, I'd like to do such and such. No, I can't. Yes, I'd like to do this and that. Basically, yes, no, yes. - By not talking about certain things - what are we avoiding and/or denying? - Fall down 7 times, get up 8 times! - How firm a foundation - We get lost out on the limbs and branches. Maybe bring the focus back in a bit. - Getting rid of assumptions - who is going to do what? List it out and define it. - Setup a time or a person to help manage adilas - The costs of transitioning (switching between things, projects, tasks, focuses, etc.) - it is a real cost that is hard to nail down. There is also a mental side to transitioning without finishing things. That wears on a person's confidence and psyche. - Maybe cut down on dedicated hours - Dealing with funding options, we could divide some of my percentages (ownership) - just an option. - Who is going to manage things - single person, small team, some kind of board or council, nobody, or hire it out? - What about the adilas Jellyfish model - good, bad, change, tweak, refine, kill it, what? - Who are we and what size are we comfortable with? Small, medium, large, extra-large, massive? Just being silly. I really like the small to medium sizes personally. - Reread the internal adilas questionnaire summary that Shannon and I put together from the different key players and adilas dependables. - Timeline to make and implement these decisions - how are we doing? - So much - We get pulled on every day - how do we get away from all of the distractions? Focus! - Just for fun, what does it take to go public? Meaning publicly traded or a way to raise capital and investments. - Could we sell some of our shares? What would that look like? - What about freeware, shareware, or full open-source options? Do we even want to go there, or do we stay with our current model and just keep tweaking it? Just ideas. - Our internal rates - What we charge for what we do - We are held captive due to available monies and funding. As an independent developer, I was charging $50/hour back in early 2000's. Where are we at now and is there any room for progression? There is a disconnect to what we are making vs what we have to deal with and try to coordinate. The stress alone is way bigger. - What if we created our own investment pitch deck? We could do all kinds of levels - loans, investments, equity, shares, other supporting companies, etc. Might be interesting. |
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Shop 9942 | Working on a plan | 2/23/2023 |
Working on gathering up ideas and data for a master adilas plan. Reading over notes, developer's notebook entries, and coming up with some scratch files to add to the plan. The goal is gather things, then copy and paste from the scratch document into a more organized and formatted official document of sorts. We may end up using the web, so that we can link and refence all kinds of other things. It also becomes searchable which is awesome. As a side note for me, I'm seeing the adilas jellyfish model as a great starting point for our master plan. It has all of the services and extensions that we want to build out and define (that we can see right now). See attached for an older copy of that graphic. |
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Adi 2284 | Master Adilas Plan - Jellyfish Model | 2/27/2023 |
Back to the main index for the master adilas plan Master Adilas Plan - Jellyfish Model Brainstorming Ideas and Topics: - How big do you want to be? – See also the internal questionnaire responses and survey - tons of good info there - almost a mini plan by itself. Also, question 7 on the survey has a whole write up on the adilas jellyfish or jelly fish model and explains it further. - The adilas jellyfish model - see attached - covers almost all of the departments and sub sections of what we are trying to be as a company. It is not the main product, but more of our internal and external departments, areas, and general areas that we will keep refining and working on. - Possible numbers for the jellyfish model. Going from top to bottom and from left to right. Areas, sections, and departments in more detail: ** for me - go deeper into each section ** 1. adilas.biz
2. Admin
3. Monthly Reoccurring Service - aka Billing (new name)
4. Sales & Marketing
5. Setup & Training
6. Tech Support
7. Design
8. Custom Code
9. Consulting
10. R&D
11. Project Management
12. Internal Development & Maintenance
13. Adilas University
14. Adilas Marketplace
15. Adilas Cafe & Community - Adilas World
16. Databases, Networks, Servers, & IT
------------------------- - Alan and I were playing with a mini version or what that might look like (see attached for a mini mock-up of the smaller mini model): Adilas.biz - admin, monthly billing, and day to day running the company. They could do their own R&D (progress, speed, what the clients are wanting). Sales & marketing - They could do their own R&D (advertising, pricing, features, marketing materials, etc.). Consulting, tech support, setup & training, and retention. This could also be part of the adilas university (similar folk). They could do their own R&D (tied into sales, marketing, training, etc.). Development stuff - project management, custom code, internal development, maintenance, & design. They could do their own R&D (code, frameworks, layouts, look and feel, etc.). IT stuff - Databases, servers, hardware, hosting, etc. They could do their own R&D (speed, load balancing, redundancy, monitoring, etc.). Marketplace and adilas cafe - This could be their own little piece or small team. They could do their own R&D (product research, options, pricing, hardware options, services, etc.). We would love to see each of these sections or divisions (departments) be able to meet and interact with each other on a consistent basis (at least monthly or semi-monthly). Nobody is left on an island by themselves. Communication is huge. |
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Shop 9945 | Main topics - master plan | 2/27/2023 |
Started playing with elements of time and setting up the main pieces for the adilas master plan. Here is a quick breakdown of the time id's. Master Adilas Plan All time id's are inside of adilas 2283 - Main Index 2284 - Jellyfish Model 2285 - Value Add-On Core Model 2286 - Adilas University 2287 - Adilas Marketplace 2288 - Adilas Cafe & Community 2289 - Fracture - Future Project 2290 - Budgets & Finances 2291 - Marketing & Sales 2292 - Other Timelines, Plans & Projects |
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Shop 9957 | Phone call with Steve | 3/2/2023 |
Great phone call with Steve. We were talking about direction, options, and how to push the ball to the next level. We talked sales, staff, developers, projects, MVP, plans, adilas jellyfish model, value add-on core model, adilas cafe, adilas marketplace, and adilas university. Tons of different topics. We talked about raising prices, raising funds, selling percentage shares of adilas, and how to help make things smoother and smoother. Who is going to manage what and how to best define certain roles, jobs, and tasks. Great conversation and making progress. Here are some other random notes: - Client acquisition costs - Where are they at? Do we fully know or does it change from client to client? - Increasing development or decreasing development? - MVP's - minimal viable products and minimal viable plans and minimal viable persons - Possibly selling up to 51% of adilas percentages and then reinvesting strategically in projects and pieces that we want and/or really need. Plan it all out and then push on what we want. - As a side note, we went in a number of circles - ok, let's do this... ok, maybe we should do this..., no, let's do this... - next thing you know, you are back where you started. We did this over and over again. The funny thing is, we didn't come up with the same exact plans every time. That means that there is more than one option out there. - Trying to work the long plan and long play |
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Shop 9937 | Server Meeting | 3/7/2023 |
Small pitch to the guys and gals of what we are planning. I did a small recap of our last sales meeting and went over a few ideas and options. The first two pieces of the plan are the adilas jellyfish model and the value add-on core model. Just trying to keep all of the players up to date and in the loop. Even though it's not done and fully ready yet. We flipped over to server stuff and going over servers, bugs, questions, and what not. Cory had a list of questions to follow-up about. Wayne was telling Cory about new ways of building and checking objects and memory objects. We went over some options for testing code on data 5 and the value of both data and documentation. Cory asked about a few other client requests. One of the last topics was - Being able to finish and get the projects across the finish line. For me, I really want to build the value add-on core graphic in put it in the teaching photo gallery. I have to keep drawing it over and over again, and it doesn't really show the whole vision of where we are headed yet. I'll get there. |
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Shop 10179 | Planning with Aspen | 5/30/2023 |
Working with Aspen to go over our plan for making the plan. Light review and discussing expectations and where we are going. Started in on adding some research links to part of our plan. Pushed up the new stuff to the google doc that John and I had started. Here is a light version of where we are heading... (just barely starting - for the record, it looks nicer in the google doc) Master Adilas Plan or Adilas Master Plan
New note added on 8/14/23 - For a pretty good breakdown of these projects - just at a high level, see this element of time 10377 and it's photo gallery. ________________ Table of Contents. To-do All time id's are inside of adilas 2283 - Main Index 2284 - Jellyfish Model - Research on the Jellyfish model - link 2285 - Value Add-On Core Model - Research - link 2286 - Adilas University - Research - link 2287 - Adilas Marketplace - Research - link 2288 - Adilas Cafe & Community - Research - link 2289 - Fracture - Future Project - Research - link - Adobe XD mock-ups with options 2290 - Budgets & Finances 2291 - Marketing & Sales - Adobe XD mock-ups with options - World Building Concepts and Concepts of the Data Assembly Line - Pitching the concepts - Research on world building, research on data assembly line - Presentation Gallery - great start for an outline of what adilas does 2292 - Other Timelines, Plans & Projects |
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Shop 10235 | Financial products we could offer | 6/11/2023 |
Just thinking about some ideas for financial products for adilas and adilas lite (fracture). - We could offer short term investments - 2-5 years for payouts on investments or loans. These could be higher interest rates as we would be paying them back quicker. May need to research rates. - We could offer long term or longer term investments - 5-50+ years - These could be lower interest rates as we would be paying them back either over longer periods or potentially letting them sit in the long term liabilities (loans and long term payables) for long time periods. They, the lender/investor would still get paid, it would be more of a long term deal where they were making money off of the interest while still having the payable on the books and financials (balance sheet). - There are at least 4 main entities that I can think of right now. They are the main adilas, llc (main or mother ship), the adilas shop (development, IT, and R&D stuff for adilas and special projects), the adilas university (education and training entity), and the adilas marketplace that could have a number of subs underneath and/or somehow associated with it. See the adilas jelly fish model for rough sketch of the corporate structure and how they all play together. Long story short, adilas creates a number of byproducts and has a constant need for other supporting products and professional services. That's pretty cool! All of these could be their own business or entity. - On the adilas marketplace concept, maybe treat it like virtual real estate or a mini mall type venue. Tons of different options. See attached for a small graphic of what it could be like (just a concept). I'd love to see business funding, investments, marketing, and planning to join the existing ideas of accountants, CPA's, attorneys, bookkeepers, consultants, custom code, developers, graphic design, hardware, merchant processing, sales, tech support, and other third party solutions. It could be anything, either built under the adilas umbrella and/or a complete independent third party. Tons of options there. Along with this idea... maybe treat it like a railroad. We own the railroad tracks but others can own cars, businesses, etc. - Back to other financial products for adilas - We could offer options for ship A - current adilas. We could offer packages or options for ship B - future adilas buildout - fracture or adilas lite. - We could offer options for sponsor for certain features. This could be all internal, approved third parties, or a mix of whatever. Small side note, I was exploring this concept more on 6/14/23 about possible sponsors for modules and features. - This is more for me, but I'd like to meet with some of my friends to get some ideas from them. Allen Marler, Sheldon Archibald, Matt Funk, etc. Good guys that I know and that I could learn from. |
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Shop 10191 | Planning with Aspen | 6/19/2023 |
Meeting with both Alan and Aspen. I took some notes and Aspen took some notes. After the meeting, I did some more note recording and note digitizing for 6/15/23 and for 6/16/23. Alan was on with us for the first hour. Here are some of my notes. See attached for all of them. - Let's build out the MVP for the plan - general fracture or adilas lite planning session - what documents does that mean and/or require? - Two of the first main things we want to do is define the jelly fish model (business structure) and the value add-on core model. Those two are some known needs of where we are heading. - We spent quite a bit of time talking about how to break functionality and features up. We want to keep those separate as far as options. - I showed Alan the presentation gallery and the outline of the business functions. There is quite a bit of work that has already been done there. Great resources. - Small packages and/or starting points - We could call it whatever - recipes, packages, templates, industry specific skins, presets, etc. - Alan wanted us to think about tiers and scaling - both vertical and horizontal. I was thinking, what about the Z scale or the depth/layering axis. Just for fun 3D scaling and 3D world building. It might be fun to explore this. - We talked a little bit about pricing and tier levels. We would like to set breakpoints, ranges, and fees for going over. - We asked Alan about his vision for adilas lite and fracture - He is really excited about creating a solution that is light weight and very efficient. In his words, he said, How can I get the most power with the least amount of drag? We went on to talk about hiding things that they don't need and getting them to the meat of the operation as quickly as possible. We will do future planning sessions where we look at each section and slim it down to the minimum or minimal requirements. - This is a side note, but as I have been thinking about minimal pieces, I keep coming back to a concept that we were looking into called standalone declarations (full entries without any other connections and/or supporting documentation). They exist by themselves but they also may be mapped and pointed to the right place. We could sum them up, count them, map them, and keep it super simple. Originally it was going to be something that could be made for financial documents (P&L and the balance sheet) but technically we could use them in any way. Simple standalone pieces. - Spend the time and do some market research on what business verticals we could hit and take care of. - Lots of talk about automation and even automating the setup of new systems. Let people try things out as a free or limited version. We would setup thresholds, limits, ranges, or whatever. We want people to try it out and like it. - We talked about ice bergs and mountains (perception of how big it is). We also switched and talked about the depth of the water... pretend levels of swimming - Imagine that you are at the beach - you could get your feet wet, do some wading, swimming, snorkeling, or scuba diving. All at the same place, just how deep and serious are you or what are you looking for? - Once we have a list of things that need to be done and/or worked on, we get to prioritize that list. What do we want to build out and when? - Alan had the idea of putting our outline information into a database. That way we could just query things (just in time) as needed. That way we could make the lists super small and then allow for it to be expanded at will. Great idea. Simple displays with drill-downs. Almost the presentation gallery for sales, marketing, pricing, features, and education. - We also want to highlight future plans and what is up and coming. We change things all the time. Make that part of the plan and the part of the presentation. Put it in a database and let our users pull back what information they want and/or need. Self-building templates, feature lists, tiers, and other levels. |
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Shop 10374 | Meeting with Alan | 7/6/2023 |
Meeting with Alan. Going over and reviewing my meeting this morning with Aaron and what we are learning and discovering. Alan was showing us (Aspen and I) some VueJS stuff (JavaScript framework). Lots of shortcuts. Mini caching of variables. Listeners and watchers. Two-way passing back and forth. Comparing VueJS to React JS stuff. Event handling and looking into options. We switched gears and went over needs for training and outside training resources. We did some review of some older R&D stuff from Jonathan Wells. We talked about some new user's stories. I got some notes from Alan (see attached). Light ideas of what Alan wants to do with adilas lite and fracture. We then rolled into a small work session doing stuff with the jelly fish model. See elements of time # 2284 inside of adilas for verbiage there. |
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Shop 10300 | Meeting with a friend | 7/10/2023 |
Lunch meeting with Jonathan Johnson from Epic Enterprises. Jonathan is a business consultant here locally in the Cache Valley, Utah area. Great little meeting and he was asking some great questions and feelers to check out parts and pieces of my plan for ship B, fracture, or adilas lite. We talked about pieces of the business plan and how to plan things out and proceed. - One of the main topics was dealing with talent and getting excellent talent to help run the business. - Went over our rough plan and talked through steps of the plan. See elements of time # 10179 for more details.
- Lots of talk about division, departments, and managing the entity and the projects. Defining those roles and what is needed. Once that is finished, we will put or assign/invite the who (people and talent) to the what. - We talked a lot about inviting and enticing the talent. Not all of the talent will be hourly or employee level people. Some of the talent or high-end knowledge workers contribute in different ways. That was a small paradigm shift for me, thinking wise. More of projects and contributions vs hours and physical output. - What needs to be done for the product development pieces - plans, marketing, sales, and roll outs. - Talking about building out a pitch deck to help pitch the project and product (the whole package). - 5 main personality types - There are five major roles that need to be fulfilled in a company. Instead of just roles, ideally, you actually have people in place who can carry each of these roles and own it. Otherwise, you just have a smaller number wearing multiple hats. The five people are: An organizer, a doer, a creative type, a consultant, and a salesman. The goal is to align talents with tasks. I grabbed this bullet point from entry # 5295 - another meeting with Jonathan Johnson (early on, back in 2019). - Talking about the root words in authority (author or create), accountability (count or manage), and responsibility (respond or react). Who does what and how that all plays into the mix. - See attached for a napkin with some notes on it - Here is what Jonathan wanted me to do - 4 steps he wants me to work on... 1. Define the division and structure of the company, 2. Invite the talent to fill the roles defined, 3. Product development MVP, and 4. Build the pitch deck. All of these need to be at least good enough. Shooting for an MVP level on all of them. |
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Shop 10324 | Meeting with Alan | 7/10/2023 |
Meeting with Alan on defining roles and responsibilities for parts of the adilas jelly fish model. See element of time # 2284 inside of adilas for details. Not finished yet but some great discussions. Master Adilas Plan - Jellyfish Model - The adilas jellyfish model - covers almost all of the departments and sub sections of what we are trying to be as a company. It is not the main product, but more of our internal and external departments, areas, and general areas that we will keep refining and working on. - Possible numbers for the jellyfish model. Going from top to bottom and from left to right. Tons more details and bullet points on element of time # 2284 inside of adilas. |
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Shop 10377 | Planning with Aspen | 7/11/2023 |
Planning with Aspen. Doing some brain mapping on a huge board with post-it notes. See attached for some pictures. Lots of high-level planning for adilas lite, fracture, and sub projects within our bigger vision. Once again, see attached. We also got Aspen paid for her work. Quick breakdown of the different projects: #1 - Company Structure - Jellyfish Model - Knowlege workers vs hourly workers, define divisions, departments, the who (talent), combine areas as needed, optimize structure, overtime, and compensation. We also want to deal with the different personality types - organizer, doer, creative, consultant, and the salesperson (someone who does sales). #2 - Product Development - Value Add-On Core - Players, features, each summarized (possibly in a video or multiple videos). Define the current core. Figure out industry specific skins. White labeling options. On the industry specific skins, go minimal for the start. Custom code - data driven, not code driven. BI (business intelligence) level - Model needs to be fully planned out because it doesn't exist as a standalone layer at this time. It is built into the system as a whole. We need to extract those pieces and make a better plan for those numbers, values, and pieces of BI. Enterprise - define it and prep the database to make the jump eventually. #3 - Education and Training - Adilas University - Internal and external training needs - video clips, organize them (library of sorts), tracking education, SOP's (standard operating procedures) per industry, in general, and company specific options. Make all of this data driven. Easier interactions, easier interface, all dealing with settings (show/hide, rename, aliases, sort order, defaults, etc.). Once again, both internal and external training needs. Online and in person trainings. Minimize the need for education by building out a better interface (fracture and adilas lite). Dynamic content and settings. Program education directly into the interface. Be able to turn the education mode or help mode on/off based on needs and per person. #4 - Community and 3rd Party Solutions - Adilas Marketplace - Access from the adilas cafe or as a standalone app. Adilas creates tons of byproducts (both products and services). This could be things like consulting, design, custom code, data entry, bank reconciliation, accounting needs, etc. We want to offer ways to both buy and sell both products and services through a controlled interface. Think of a mini Amazon or mini eBay type marketplace. We need a spot to send, organize, and direct 3rd party solutions. Advertising and marketing efforts. More white labeling options (in the marketplace). This section could be further explored and has lots of potential. #5 - Social and Efficiency Options - Adilas Cafe & Community - White labeling, standardized portal, single login, single sign on, able to jump to any corporation on any server where permissions have been granted. Options for work, play, buy, sell, train, social, and participate. User profile page. Interface with other corporations, get assigned, hub type environment. Mini marketplace for adilas based products and services. Sales and creation of new accounts (automated setup options). Tired pricing. News and updates, this wouldn't be forced on anybody but would be more available. We could allow them to customize their news and update feed. Dynamic billing and making payments for our (adilas) clients. #6 - Deeper Product Development - Adilas Lite or Fracture - Customize everything. Setup wizard, question to help with setup, industry specific settings and presets, sizes, features, and options to customize as needed. Show/hide almost everything. Other settings such as toggle on/off features, columns, reports, navigation, etc. Everything is configurable to some extent. Sort orders and the ability to move things around (vertically, horizontally, and free form). Settings and making all of these decisions data driven. Inside of fracture (code name before we got adilas lite) we want to make some server changes, code changes, frontend and backend changes by using frameworks and different languages (code stuff). Entirely composed of API sockets. This will make everything more portable and will also allow other outside developers options to build custom pages, features, and interfaces. Another advantage of using the API sockets for everything, it will standardize how everybody interfaces and interacts with the system or application. It will also let other developers play along without letting them see the underlying code. They just see documentation, examples, and final output from the API socket calls or API endpoints. Fracture will include testing plans, sections for unit testing, integration testing, automated tests, and good coverage on testing in general. Everything will be modularized and broken into smaller mini components. We plan on using dynamic billing for usage, features, storage, etc. Entirely new interface with the ability to setup your own navigation and your own dashboards. We want lots of white labels and white labeling options. Tons of industry specific stuff as well. Be able to turn on/off the education mode. We would love to capitalize on numerous lessons learned from 20+ years in the business. Lots of prototyping, new databases with good indexing and normalization. Directly program in teasers and marking. There has even been some talk of using AI (artificial intelligence) to help with suggestions for products and features that they might use or want. Everything will be mobile ready and responsive. Client-side and server-side validation. We also want to prep things and have a maintenance plan in place as well. That is something that has been somewhat missing from past versions. Basically, take what we have and build from there - learning from the past and building for the future. Everything has a life cycle, prep for the next phase or part of that life cycle. #7 - Budgets, Finances, Marketing, & Sales - Other business plans - interactive wireframing presentations, SWOT analysis, funding and repayment stuff, timelines, mission statement, profit sharing, budgets per section, per person, per product/feature. Writing business proposals, project scopes, sales pitches, standardization, and master table of contents. Lots of good marketing and campaigns for sales. Sources of profit and ROI (return on investment). Prototyping, testing, and market research. #8 - Other - Networking and meetings as well as more research. Get in there and get it done! |
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Shop 10403 | Meeting with Alan | 7/17/2023 |
Planning meeting with Alan. Light review and updates from each other. Working on the adilas jellyfish model. We came up with a mini jellyfish model. See element of time # 2284 inside of adilas. Working on an agenda and planning what we wanted to do for the group meeting to show progress. Talking about talent. |
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Shop 10329 | Ship B - Group update meeting | 7/18/2023 |
Printing out some elements of time as a back-up paper copy. Prep for a group meeting. Once the meeting started, we did some small intros. There were 10 of us on the meeting. We went over concepts of throwing stuff at the wall, seeing what sticks, organizing things, Alan gave a small PowerPoint presentation (see attached). We talked about exposing the peaks, mountains and ice berg (peaks) analogy, tiered versions, pricing matrix, features & who has access, prototyping with code models, frameworks, libraries, the jelly fish model, a new mini jelly fish model, and tons of other topics. We got into topics of growth, retention, code development, IT/Servers, and Cafe/Marketplace options. Great discussion on R&D and how R&D plays on both the maintenance side (stabilizing and making the current product better) and the growth side (new stuff and pioneering). Spent some time talking about the SWOT analysis, lessons learned, and mission statements. This is an idea from Hamid, on the mission statement - Mission: Adilas - Build Your Solutions. We got into some user stories, scenarios, and recruiting help from the guys/gals. We talked about who wants to help and what they could do. Overall, a good meeting. We recorded it, at least the first part (first 23 minutes). It stopped recording when we switched screens and switched presenters. Anyways, see attached for some other notes, the PowerPoint slides, and the link to the video recording. Good group meeting with a progress report on the ship B, adilas lite stuff, and fracture. |
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Shop 10417 | Lunch with Alan | 7/21/2023 |
Lunch meeting with Alan. He was in town so we hooked up for lunch and to chat. Planning, talking about our team, roles, strengths and weaknesses, and industry specific skins. We talked about the jelly fish model, the value add-on core model, adilas university, adilas marketplace, and fracture (adilas lite) stuff. Fun little meeting. Both Alan and I are on the same page as far as vision. That's awesome! |
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Shop 10588 | Working with Shannon | 10/26/2023 |
Work session with Shannon. We spent some time going over the ideas that we had for the overview for the videos and research project. We spent a bunch of time refining our draft. We then moved on to the adilas jellyfish model and did some brainstorming there on what to put into the overview for that project. Great work session. See attached for our videos and research overview text. |
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Shop 10586 | Working with Shannon | 10/31/2023 |
Working with Shannon. Reviewing some of our work from last week. Then jumping into the next section. Copied over the jellyfish overview from an internal questionnaire from a couple of years ago. Spent the rest of the time working on the SWOT analysis. John and I roughed out some stuff back in July. Shannon and I were going in and harnessing some of that work. Trying to make that document more usable. See attached for some uploaded pieces that we are working on. |
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Shop 10631 | Training | 11/7/2023 |
Brushing up on some skills and doing some training. Going over stuff from w3schools. Made a small change to the main adilas CSS. Later on, went in and added some new verbiage for the overviews on the adilas lite site for the adilas jellyfish model and the adilas lite videos and research. |
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Shop 10884 | Meeting with Shannon | 3/7/2024 |
Working with Shannon. Touching on the adilas value add-on core model and the adilas university overviews for the adilas lite and fracture projects. We also spent some time working on the adilas marketplace project overview. Good work session. We then added the overviews to the web pages where they belonged. See attached for our documents and progress. Links to the project overviews: |
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Shop 10883 | Meeting with Shannon | 3/19/2024 |
Working with Shannon. We finished up the adilas lite (fracture) project overviews. We then pushed up the overviews to the correct pages. That is awesome, we've been working hard on some of these overviews. Here's a list of projects. They are not done yet (as of right now) but we are making progress and getting things planned out. Adilas Lite - Main Homepage |
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