[ilkandi]

hi frankiewarren; I was a Java/Sql/PHP/HTML programmer for several years and now I'm a senior BA. This is how I'd interact with you.. When anyone approaches me with an idea, I immediately tell them I'm not going to program it, but I'd be happy to guide them in the docs they need to successfully contract it out. We have a short sitdown chat and I walk them through vision -> target audience -> user goals -> stories -> use cases -> flowchart -> actions -> screen mockups. It's their job to write all the docs. I read them, make suggestions of what areas to look into, a minimal feature set to launch first, errors and recovery, etc. This idea development work encourages the serious people and stops the dilettantes. I get to hear new ideas (I love ideas) and I can choose which ones I'd want to be involved with. There have been a few awesome ones, and one is being built. My advice is: * Think why your idea better than what's already there (or why it's easier to find, easier to use, etc) * Practice your enthusiastic sales pitch of why it's so awesome. If you don't love it noone else will. * Don't give up if the first 10 people don't like it. (but, consider a new idea after 30 people run away)