Creating12: 12 products. 1 year.

I am creating 12 products in 12 months.
You can follow my progress at http://creating12.com

How is this going down?

This has already started. My first project has launched at Inspiremarks.com. It’s a printing of startup themed bookmarks. I love them! I think they are the perfect bookmarks – at least for me.

I will continue to make incremental improvements.
February is going to be an application related to determining and keeping track of team health at work.

Then, I’m going to continue building and launching products. I’m going through the entire process of research, design, launching, and marketing for each new product.

I will be sharing my progress here as I continue and learn new things.

How can I help?

You can buy a set of bookmarks at Inspiremarks.com to show your appreciation for this project. You can also share this post on social media. You an also send me a note of encouragement: It’s extremely difficult to work a full time job, take graduate level computer science courses, and also build 12 products in a month.

I’m going to be posting progress at Creating12.com. You can follow along by subscribing to the publication on Medium. You should also follow me on Twitter. I’ll be sharing updates as I go.

Why do this?

Here’s a list of reasons

1.) Prioritizing execution

When you force yourself to create something from nothing in a month, you don’t have time to worry about the minor details. You don’t have the time. You need to make a decision and keep moving forward. You can’t debate the pros and cons of a color scheme for days. You are forced to make a decision and keep moving forward. If you don’t do that, you will not finish. You can always go back and make changes, but this priority of execution forces you to ignore minor details in order to focus on delivery.

2.) Sturgeon’s Law is real

Sturgeon’s Law says that 90% of things are crap. Cavezza’s corollary says that no creator knows what fits into the 90% and what fits into the 10%. The crucial insight is that 1 out of 10 products you create will be a success, but you don’t know which of the 10 will be the success. By forcing yourself to bring 12 ideas into the world in one year, this dramatically increases your odds of success based on Sturgeon’s Law and Cavezza’s Corollary.

3.) Learning new skills

I didn’t think printed physical bookmarks would be a complex project. As I got deeper into the project, I was forced to learn how to design for print, how to work with a printing company, how to open an e-commerce store, how to write product copy, and how to photograph products. I’m learning at a rapid pace. This project has forced me into a rapid learning of unique skills.

4.) I’m working on things I love

In the past, I stayed away from enjoyable projects. I worked on projects targeted at big markets where I thought a big opportunity was. Now, I’m focusing more on things I enjoy. Little things like physical bookmarks. I’m also focusing on problems I have at work – scratching my own itch. This has been a lot of fun!

5.) Launching creates opportunities

The more projects you launch, the more serendipitous opportunities come your way. It’s a law of life on the internet. Sometimes, this manifests itself by people emailing for advice and I love helping people. Other times, it manifests itself in career opportunities. I believe in the power of serendipity and love increasing the odds of serendipity.

6.) Creating helps exercise your idea muscles

Before starting on this project, I was not generating new ideas regularly. I was producing a new product idea once every three months. Since starting, I’m coming up with a few new ideas each day. The act of creation helps create an atmosphere for more creation.

What are the rules?

12 products need to be creating and launched before December 31, 2020 at 11:59pm eastern time.

There are no restrictions on types of products. My expertise is in web development, but I want to branch out and try different things. The first product is completed and it is a set of startup quote themed bookmarks –Inspiremarks.com. The second product will be a B2B saas web application. Don’t be surprised if there’s a desktop application and a mobile application built along the way.

Thanks for reading. Wish me luck!