We've started Digger 1.5 years ago, and launched it last summer. It was well received but didn't exactly take off as we hoped. Clearly needed more work. We have also realised that as a startup of 2 at the time we were trying to do way too many problems at once, it is simply impossible to build a full-featured platform with a tiny team.
We then launched a number of more focused products, all powered by the same Digger engine. 2 did better than the other 5 or so. Lemon was an alternative UI for AWS; Alicorn was a multi-cloud offering for containers. Those launches helped us realise that some of the core architectural assumptions we had were wrong. We also needed to rework the UX because people were getting confused by the split between Services and Environments, as well as separation of Infrastructure and Software deployments.
So we got back to the drawing board. We have radically simplified the UX, removed the confusing parts, introduced keyless AWS connection with narrowed down permission scope and many other things. The question remained - which is the use case people care about most? To answer it we started launching smaller products again, all powered by Digger engine with tweaked configurations.
Many people liked AWS Bootstrap. It allows you to quickly configure your AWS account to run frontend, backend and a database of your choice. Quite literally bootstrap.
Another thing that was well received was Terragen. We made it all about auto-generation of terraform. As soon as the user connects their AWS account they can export generated Terraform into their GitHub.
With OpsFlow we took the learnings from AWS Bootstrap and Terragen and made the UI even simpler. It no longer bothers the user with optional stuff, it is all moved to the new Settings page. And it's centered around 2 simple types of building blocks - Apps and Resources.
OpsFlow is the closest we got so far to making something people want. Still a long way to go though :)
We then launched a number of more focused products, all powered by the same Digger engine. 2 did better than the other 5 or so. Lemon was an alternative UI for AWS; Alicorn was a multi-cloud offering for containers. Those launches helped us realise that some of the core architectural assumptions we had were wrong. We also needed to rework the UX because people were getting confused by the split between Services and Environments, as well as separation of Infrastructure and Software deployments.
So we got back to the drawing board. We have radically simplified the UX, removed the confusing parts, introduced keyless AWS connection with narrowed down permission scope and many other things. The question remained - which is the use case people care about most? To answer it we started launching smaller products again, all powered by Digger engine with tweaked configurations.
Many people liked AWS Bootstrap. It allows you to quickly configure your AWS account to run frontend, backend and a database of your choice. Quite literally bootstrap.
Another thing that was well received was Terragen. We made it all about auto-generation of terraform. As soon as the user connects their AWS account they can export generated Terraform into their GitHub.
With OpsFlow we took the learnings from AWS Bootstrap and Terragen and made the UI even simpler. It no longer bothers the user with optional stuff, it is all moved to the new Settings page. And it's centered around 2 simple types of building blocks - Apps and Resources.
OpsFlow is the closest we got so far to making something people want. Still a long way to go though :)