What good is "Big Data" if it's old and out of date? Data analysts and enterprises are finding more needs for real-time insights into their data, not just historical views into data. The term "historical data" is very relative of course,...
I’m very pleased to announce that our team is well into writing a book on how to build real-time web applications using WebRTC and publish/subscribe real-time messaging networks. I’ve been presenting this topic to user groups for a while...
This week, CIO.com published an article by Jonathan Hassell called "What CIOs Need to Know Before Relying on Startups". The article lays out the list of pros of working with startups: disruptive technology and extreme flexibility to work...
Let’s say you have a browser application that needs to keep data in synch between multiple users in real-time. Perhaps it’s a real-time data dashboard, or an online collaboration tool like Sensei, or a multiplayer game. Should you use a...
Interaction design for real-time applications is different than for more static or traditional web applications. With the advent of in-browser real-time communication standards like WebRTC, it gets even more complicated because you need...
How are those New Year’s resolutions going? If it’s anything like mine, it’s probably not going quite as well as planned. You were really into your new goal for a couple of days, downloaded a new app to help you along, made some kind of...
What do you do when have an idea for a web-based business but don’t know how to get started? Do you need to learn to go unicorn hunting, I mean, go find a technical co-founder? Finding a technical co-founder has become part of the...
Interaction Design, User Experience, Usability … these terms are increasingly trendy and important in software development. They are my favorite part of software development and my favorite part of what we do at AgilityFeat. I started my...
For the past two months I've had the pleasure of working with incredible Steph Hay on the development of her application, Tougher.Me. Tougher.Me is Steph's first web product and we asked her to share some of her experiences talking to...
If all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. I may be falling victim to this old adage admittedly, but everywhere I look recently I see possible applications of WebRTC technology. For those not aware, WebRTC is part of...
At AgilityFeat, we work in a distributed manner. Primarily due to the insight that interruptions kill productivity and partially due to the painful traffic situation that exists in San José Costa Rica (where most of our team lives), our...
Responsive design has been around since 2012. Last year, it was a hot topic and most entrepreneurs and technology leaders have heard about responsive design. However, there are still many new businesses that are building new products and...
2014 is only 9 days old and before we get too far into the new year, we wanted to take a look back at our top posts from 2013. We covered a great deal of ground last year on our blog, including our experiences developing products via...
Sprint length is a topic of debate for companies employing Scrum. In my opinion, there is no one "right" length for sprints because of the myriad of factors that influence how effective a specific sprint length can be for a company....
Entrepreneurs are everywhere. The development of the internet has made creating and selling a product or service more accessible to more people than ever before. New technologies are dropping development costs while marketing and...
Real Time messaging is an increasingly important part of web and mobile applications, and David Alfaro and I witnessed the growing interest in this topic during our talk at MoDevEast recently. We have a very engaged group at our...
Tis the season to deck the halls, drink egg nog and spend some time under the mistletoe. And while Santa is busy making his lists and checking them twice, I thought I'd share some of my favorite books for entrepreneurs that might be good...
To quote Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." The same can be said for running a business. Hours bleed into days, days into weeks, weeks into..well, you get the...
I'm very excited next week to return to the Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco. Last year I was an Ignite speaker at the conference, and as I have said to many others since then, it was the best conference I've been to as both an...
Luxr.co has produced a new “direct line to awesome” for entrepreneurs to learn, be inspired, and grow their startups. Back in May I blogged about their upcoming services, and now it’s live! I had a chance recently to try these new...
Last week I was working with an entrepreneur friend, who is building his product with a distributed team. His group includes people on both coasts of the United States as well as a two person team in western Europe. Throughout the course...
The future of web and mobile development is happening in real time. As real time data and communications become easier to integrate into applications, you will need to change the architecture and even business models of your applications...
Am I really qualified to do this? Moments of doubt like that hit all of us occasionally as entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur must have two basic elements in order to go from “somebody with an idea” to an actual entrepreneur. First, you must...
Most people are aware of the benefits of integrating Facebook into their web site. Integrating Facebook Connect makes it easier for users to login and stay connected to your site. Further, the information that Facebook will provide back...
Customer development interviews, focus groups, beta testing … they are all great ways to learn what your customers want before you actually build it. They are often based on small groups of people simply because it’s hard to interview...