Ask HN: What do you call someone who has 20 apps released but can't code?
I wrote my first 3 Android apps and they sucked plus took a long time. So I switched gears to mockups, photoshop and outsourcing code. I have about 20 apps now, but I am not sure what yo call myself.<p>Is this a marketable skill within a company? What further training/degrees/etc. should I pursue?
5 comments
Seems like you're playing a few roles, but the chief ones would probably be:
Product Manager: You take business goals and turn them into technical requirements, then ensure the product gets built.
Project Manager: You take technical requirements and ensure that your team delivers on those requirements.
User Experience Designer: You create mockups for products which can be implemented by the technical team.
I'd put together a portfolio of your work and send it off to a few companies, as that might be good enough to land you a job.
Product Manager: You take business goals and turn them into technical requirements, then ensure the product gets built.
Project Manager: You take technical requirements and ensure that your team delivers on those requirements.
User Experience Designer: You create mockups for products which can be implemented by the technical team.
I'd put together a portfolio of your work and send it off to a few companies, as that might be good enough to land you a job.
While "product manager" has different meanings at various companies, I'd expand the description of PM to include all the wrangling of sales, marketing, and customer service that goes into shipping a product as well.
Entrepreneur. ;)
Where do you outsource typically? How hard was it to go from idea/mockups to app and what was the typical cost?
I typically outsource through oDesk, It was very hard the first time but each time gets easier. The hard part is keeping decent developers. Even the good ones, you become a side project after the first one, despite increased budgets. Typically, they don't turn down work and you suffer instead of them telling you to wait a month and risk losing you. I have had a simple crappy app made for $75 all they way up to a few grand. Typical release ready non-game app can be had around $750. Games apps can be all over the place as far as development costs.
Mockups w/photoshop = information architecture / user interface designer
Managing workers and segmenting tasks = project management
both are available as fields of study and are defined roles in most businesses -
Managing workers and segmenting tasks = project management
both are available as fields of study and are defined roles in most businesses -
Product guy.