I always get really excited when we kick off development of a new version. It begins after years of customer feedback, and even though we regularly add minor features, a major development like v4.0 means we get to add all of the goodies that we (and our customers) have always wanted.

Of course this is easier said than done!

I need to ensure that the new product doesn’t disadvantage anyone, it needs to be more efficient than its predecessor, yet we want to continue leading the pack with great new features. So for me the process is like a 6-month game of chess. Every small move has repercussions, there are risks, happy accidents, and opportunities.

I’m also a songwriter, and this process is so similar, starting with a theme/idea/rationale, or even a set of principles, and driving your obsession to create a new form. So, this time around I thought I’d share the process with you all. while I won’t be divulging too much I hope you find the journey as fascinating as I know I will. Let’s begin!

The process for me has become refined over the years. It used to be that we’d add one big feature (e.g. Our flash-based dynamic gantt chart, a web-based PM first), and I’d plant myself in a local cafe (e.g. My current fav, A Minor Place, on Albion St, Brunswick, if you’re ever in town!) with a 20-page wish-list document from customers, seven latte’s, and choose five features that would make the most impact for our customers within our limited budget.

Five years on the process is a little more refined (as is Copper these days), however, despite the available technology it still starts with a table full of printouts, three principles and a spec document.

The three very simple principles for Version 4.0 are:

1. We’re going to reduce pages/clicks by 40%
2. It needs to be something that I personally will use every single day
3. We’re going to add 100% of the features in our specification document

These might seem like relatively simple goals, but they’re anything but! Reducing pages/clicks by 40% (point 1) whilst adding over 165 features (point 3)?! Thanks to the Inner Circle program (which is filling fast, click here if you want to secure a spot) all three principles are certainly achievable. We’re about a month on since those above shots were taken.

Next week, I’ll post back with a sneak-peek at the spec doc, maybe a screen or two, and talk about how the mock layouts work hand in hand with the spec doc to arrive a development-ready brief. As always thanks for your continued support!

– Ben Prendergast

Last week we launched our second annual Enterprise Inner Circle program, aimed at bringing on pre-order customers in order to fund the development of the Copper 4.0 product. We had some great responses, and now having completed our v4.0 specification (including 165 improvements) we need a certain number of participants in order to get started.

The magic number is 30-40. “Hey, that’s two numbers Ben”, I hear you say. “Well spotted old pal”, I retort, “thats because we like to stay zen with our development, and you know this!”. But certainly 30 is the target, and 40 will result in the ultimate awesomeness for Copper.

Here is the offer:

You purchase a Copper Enterprise license ($2999) and receive:

1. A complementary hosted v3.5 Enterprise account (normally $199/mth) during development (or current server license).
2. Unlimited users, Unlimited projects. Boom!
3. Involvement in our v4.0 development (ready to kick off this month)
4. A guaranteed feature inclusion (you ’sponsor’ a feature from our spec)
5. The v4.0 Enterprise version when it is released (Est 4-6 months)
6. Two years of free updates and support
7. Inclusion in our East/West coast gatherings (June 2008)
8. One Inner Circle participant will receive an iPhone/iPod Touch. ($500 Value)

As mentioned above, we have a clear cut specification for v4.0, that closely mirrors the key changes requested over the last 3 years, and is going to take Copper another 5 steps forward in terms of efficiency/project visibility.

This offer represents a great opportunity, in fact you could add a zero to the price and still not approach the approximate value here, but ultimately you need to ask yourself; What price the love of a good software?

If you’d like to be part of the next Copper chapter, please click here to get in touch for more details about the offer or click here to purchase an Enterprise license and secure your spot in the circle.

– Ben Prendergast

It’s on again, we’re looking for a group of customers or prospective customers to come on board as an Inner Circle partner.

The way it works is this: We accept a group of customers into our development process for the next version in exchange for a pre-order of that version. We divulge our specification for the next version, and these partners can become involved in the development process, effectively sponsoring a specific feature (ensuring its inclusion in the next version). Each partner receives a hosted version of the beta product, the final version for server installation, and receives two years of free updates.

If you have a feature that you simply must see in Copper 4.0, have a customization budget, or if you have been looking at purchasing or upgrading the Enterprise version anyway, this represents a great deal.

Additionally, this time around we are building industry-specific features or streams. So, on top of the Enterprise 4.0 version, these customers also have the opportunity to assist us in designing great new solutions to specific challenges they face in their vertical.

The nominated industries/streams are:
Advertising & Design
Architecture
Event & Artist Management
Film & TV
Patient Care
Product & Fashion
Worship
Legal
Real Estate

So if you’re additionally interested in being part of the industry-specific streams, click here to let me know

– Ben Prendergast

Just kidding, it’s still a little preachy, but read on if you’d like to know more about how we’re steering our little ship toward the big seas and how we’d like you on board (paddling, or bailing water, or as ballast. OK, enough with that metaphor).

We’ve been through some significant changes in the last three months, we’ve restructured our team, systemized parts of our business that required too much administration effort, introduced some new partners to the business to improve our marketing and PR efforts, and have otherwise spent the better part of this quarter getting ready for the next round of developments.

Namely, Copper version 4.0. Wow. Version 4.0. It sounds so mature doesn’t it? And it’s only taken us six years to get to this point! Biting wit aside, I truly believe that this next version will be something special, especially as it will require a greater collaborative effort between us, our partners, and you the customers/supporters/cheersquad. However, I can tell you the 4.0 specification is in place, and to borrow an Anglo-Australian colloquialism, it’s a ripper! It will be the best Project Management Software tool available, period.

But I thought I’d share with you our manifesto, a half decade in the making, so here it is:

We’ve spent years working on building the best product we possibly can, years refining our marketing and sales model, casting the nets each month (you thought I was done with the nautical angle right?) and connecting with those who best suit our product. We’ve got our support systems to where we want them, we proudly have one of the best response rates and solution rates in the business. We have our development methodology down cold, we ask our customers what they want, and filter this through a philosophy to arrive at both great features and a compelling product. The question remains: Where to from here?

Well, we believe we can be the best in the world at building efficiency products for creative teams. After years of refining this idea, I recently read Good to Great by Jim Collins and I had an “A-Ha!” (not the band) moment. You know the kind of moment? Anyway, it crystallized my thinking of the previous six years. If you haven’t read the above book and you’re in business, make it the next book you read.

In order to build a great company, the kind of company that matters, you need to synthesize three things:

1. Be passionate about what you do
2. Be the best in the world at something
3. Discover your economic engine.

It’s called the Hedgehog principle, and in your corporate heart you become fanatical about doing one thing really really well. Suffice to say, we were well on the way to this principle anyway, we’d just never put a name or model to it.

We continue to be amazed at the organizations enquiring and purchasing Copper. From multi-national Film & TV organizations, leading Ad Agencies, technology product marketers, medical & legal teams, the list is long and broad, but there is a common focus. All of these teams want to be the best in the world at what they do.

What is Element passionate about? We’re passionate about helping those that make a difference be more efficient at it! In other words, any leading team that is out to make their environment better. No matter if it’s Apple, WWF, Greenpeace, Wilco (the band), Nissan. No matter if it’s product development, solving world hunger, shaping a cultural response, selling a family their dream home, cancer research, educating the population, or touring the world connecting with those that need a lttle soul therapy. We want to help creative teams take the myriad information and shape their response more efficiently than ever, do what they were born to do, and ultimately reduce their administrative footprint.

We’ve worked with/in/around creative teams for years, and are passionate about what it means to push new boundaries. We know we’re not uber-Geeks creating a new search engine algorythm or the next web 2.0 phenomenon, but we ARE a company that understands, values, and is committed to producing a software that helps creative professionals make a difference.

Can we do it without making a profit ourselves? No! Which leads me to the economic engine. This is the one metric that great companies instinctively know as the most important metric for maintaining that passion, being the best in the world, and continuing the evolution. I won’t go into our metric, but it involves our Advertising and Development budget (or lack thereof!).

So combining these thoughts, we’re again inviting you to become involved in our next Copper development. We have an Inner Circle program that we are offering, as well as an industry-specific stream that will allow us to further refine Copper toward these verticals. It’s a great program that is effectively a customer-sponsored feature-fest that everyone benefits from. It’s what you do when you want to be great, want to maintain and drive the vision, but you don’t have Valley funding.

If you’d like to get involved see the next post, or click here to get in touch.

– Ben Prendergast

Apologies in advance for the long winded rant, but heres an update for the first quarter of 2008!

This year has already started strongly for us, we’ve been steadily working on new minor features and bug fixes, and the latest version is our best to date. I just wanted to post here and let you all know that we’re looking to move ahead with a few special initiatives this year, in order to further bolster our customer base and continue to be a step ahead of the competition, and if you can be involved that would be great.

We’re underway with the specification of the new Copper version (Likely to be our 4.0 release), and quite surprisingly the spec doc is down to only two pages. Admittedly this is two pages of bullet-point features (not the War and Peace specs you might expect) however normally we’d have 20 or so pages of requests/spec for each new version. This tells me the product and our philosophy for ultra simple project management is maturing nicely.

We’re also going to be introducing a new ‘Inner Circle’ program, whereby we call on customers who’ve expressed interest in industry-specific versions of Copper to pre-order a license and become involved in that development process. This model of customer-investors has worked really well for us in the past, and is responsible for some of the best features in the Corporate and Enterprise products we currently offer. This time around we have 5-6 industries or verticals that we’re keen to build custom Copper Enterprise products. At this stage these include: Product Development, Film/TV/Music Production, Worship, Architecture, Design, and Event Management.

In exchange for the pre-purchase of a license (POA) we work with the Inner Circle to specify and build out new features. Its a share the wealth type deal that works really well. If you have a desire to participate on this level please email me at ben@copperproject.com

That’s all for now, but thanks again for all your support, 2008 is the year we really push Copper out into the stratosphere.

– Ben Prendergast

Facebook Apologises
Facebook’s Beacon advertising model has drawn the ire of privacy campaigners since its announcement last month. The controversial Ad model, which effectively enables facebook users to share their web activities with friends and thereby give advertisers another viral marketing angle, was not able to be switched off by users until today. Via a blog posting from CEO Mark Zuckerberg he today apologised saying “About a month ago, we released a new feature called Beacon to try to help people share information with their friends about things they do on the web. We’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.”

Hulu the future of online video?
Still in Beta, invite-only stage, the joint venture between NBC and News Corp has offered high definition full-screen (H.264) video to its beta testers for the first time, without the need for standalone viewers (e.g. Joost) and using compression that is suitable for broadband speeds. With this kind of backing we might be peeking at not only the future of online video, but of home entertainment in general.

New Airline Tech
Courtesy of Engadget, Continental airlines will trial Mobile phone boarding passes from next month.

10 Rules for Startup Success

Courtesy of TechCrunch and the Financial Times, Loic Le Meur has released his Ten Rules for Startup Success. I couldn’t agree with them more, and they are:

1. Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
2. Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
3. Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.
4. Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.
5. Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.
6. Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.
7. Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.
8. Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.
9. Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.
10. Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.

Tetris iMaxMaxMax
This is genius. Those wacky Finnish students are at it again, converting an entire university dorm building into a giant Tetris game.

– Ben Prendergast

I had so much fun browser-window-shopping last week I thought I’d follow up with ten more favourites.This time, they may not fit under your tree or within your budget, but here goes:

1. Dreamcade Arcade Cabinet:
http://www.dreamarcades.com/100inch.shtml

Sate your inner 8-year old with this baby! Compatible with projectors and most consoles.

2. Star Wars USB flash drives from Mimoco
http://lab.mimoco.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=13

3. Sphericle Speaker Set
http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/Sphericles/index.cfm

4. The Amazon Kiundle - eBook Reader - The Literal iPod.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA

5. Another Sadistic Alarm Clock:
http://www.americaninnovative.com/products/neverlate-exec.php#

Set 7-days worth of specific wake-up times, including which station/buzzer to set off, and an anti-snooze function.

6. A Philips Hi-Res CT Scanner
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7112688.stm

At this time of year its time to take a look deep-inside ourselves.

7. Noon Solars Solar powered Backpack - Get your geek-on and your gadgets charged.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/26/noon-solars-stylish-bag-collection-charges-your-gizmos/

8. Akai Headrush - Guitar loop/memory pedal, for the digital one man (or woman) band.
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/5529
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIO2qpSsUTA

9. A hard core macbook metal jacket
http://www.kkshimura.com/export_pc_price.html

For when you’re designing, say, a logo for the Taliban.

10. Christmas night Carols, replete with plasma screen and surround sound.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/26/media-center-meets-piano-results-are-questionable/
“Gather round kids, and we’ll play oh come all ye faithful, followed by some Bluray Die Hard!”

– Ben Prendergast

On my wife’s side of the family we do this Kris Kringle type deal each Christmas, where you pull a name from a hat and spend $100 on that person. Being the kind of guy that doesn’t really wait for Christmas before buying that must-have accessory, my annual gift is usually marked “Dear Impossibloke, buy less stuff next year mkay? Love Kris Kringle”. This year however we’re nominating some gifts (kind of like a gift exchange program, I don’t know why we don’t just buy ourselves a $100 gift each year, but I digress).

Admittedly I thought this would be a difficult undertaking, but sure enough Google was quick to direct me to 10 gifts that would sate my little scientist. If you know someone like me, or me, buy us one of these.

1. A Polar RS100 Heart Rate monitor - For those who like to measure pain incrementally.

2. FIFA 08 for xbox360/ps3/wii (NOT FIFA 2007, FIFA 08! There’s a difference) for when your thumbs need a workout.

3. Armani Attitude Pour Homme mens cologne - Via Strawberrynet.com, Another great fragrance from Armani.

4. Black Leather driving gloves- The one thing I couldn’t find anywhere on the web. Little Help?

5. Kenneth Cole Watch

6. An Eco Sphere - Seamonkeys for big boys

7. An Ebay BMX
That’s right, every good boy deserves an old school mongoose, complete with padding and optional spokey dokeys. Seriously though, all blokes should have a knock-around bike, even if just to “ghosty” into the christmas tree

8. A sadistic looking knife-block (We have these knives, they’re actually really good).

9. An alarm clock with an anti-snooze facility (read: it runs away)

10. A SOG multi-tool (Insert satisfied male grunt here)
For when you absolutely, positively have to cut/saw/squeeze/measure/pinch/poke/open/repair/kill something.

– Ben Prendergast

News from the IT world doesn’t come any bigger this week, here are some of the top stories:

Apple Launches Leopard, no kitten!
I won’t review the new features here, other than to say the new version at $150 bux is well worth the coin, in terms of personal efficiency you can’t beat Time machine for keeping your info safe, Quick Look for speeding up review of files, Mail improvements for bringing your to-dos into line, Spaces for keeping your various work roles split neatly, Boot Camp for running those pesky Windows apps. But in addition its the little things like having wikipedia entries linked to your dictorianary (apple click any word anywhere to gain clarity) or being able to quickly google map an address book entry. While some criticize the update as being a service pack, I’m here to say Apple are still the leaders in inspired software development.

NY Times says: More readers trading Newspapers for Web Sites
That’s right, treehuggers should be happy to note that newspaper sales are on the decline while online readership is on the up. Now if only I can get a raise.

Facebook Ads - Having your cake and feed your friends too.
Big news on the Facebook front, with the social media company announcing an ambitious new ad infrastructure that will allow advertisers to target specific demographics whilst presumably (it will be launched tomorrow morning our time) allowing a brand-based referral network. While social referral isn’t new, the notion that the estimated 25 million daily users of facebook be presented by brand messages from their trusted friends offers a new and potentially highly profitable revenue stream, akin to Google Adwords or YouTube’s embedded ads. This morning, there’s already a backlash

Digg, the online news ranking site close to sale
One of the internet’s more popular blog ranking site is close to a US$300-$400m sale to a ‘major media player”. Rupert? Is that you?

– Ben Prendergast