Steve and Sean going over sales stuff. They were talking about the Apple Model and how someone greats you when you come in and then you could be helped by someone else by going through some sort of simple queue type process. Danny checked in. After that, we helped Steve with his local environment. Both Dustin and John Maestas checked in. Some small intros were made and what not. John is Dustin's friend. John is just getting going with us on some development projects.

They then started to talk about different versions and generations, for example: generation 3 or generation 4, etc. Dustin has been responsible for some of the new versions out in cultivation land and what not. It is fun to see the progress and the changes over time.

After these guys left, we went into a sub meeting of sorts and worked through some things. Sometimes, our clients, want industry specific processes that are fully built out and completely industry specific (super narrow focus and/or paths to choose). As we were talking, we ended up talking about drawing out the processes, pretending to do simulations and different use cases. We also talked about being proactive vs reactive  and/or passive. We really want to help our users out and then let them help us refine it vs waiting completely on the client's input. Sometimes they don't know what is possible, they tend to stick with what is set in front of them.

Often, our clients don't realize that we can customize it (tweak or refine the processes). That seems really trivial to us, but thinking in custom code (what is possible) is a skill. The deeper we go, the more we are seeing that all of our layouts need to be fully customized or customizable and based on settings. That sounds awesome, but that adds a whole other level of complexity. Small and skinny yet totally data driven.

We need to get back to the limited flex grid pages. Make it slick and skinny. We are already using it for Beaver Mountain, but want to make it good to go for all of our clients. This would be so cool, but it will take some more work. Having said that, we really really want to get back to this. The limited flex grid is a way of setting up custom fields and dynamically populating a really small add/edit form that only shows what they want or need vs all of the possible fields.

As a side note, the flex grid table has over 40+ different fields that we can and do use for different things. Imagine is you could setup a simple form that only had 5-6 of those custom values. It then becomes really simple vs too big or too overwhelming. The goal is user defined simplicity, yet still being fully connected and powerful. If needed, we could always flip over to a full or more extended mode if some other field or value is needed. It is almost like layering the interface and the data. Super simple on the surface, but deeper or more rich as needed (layering).

We got off into communications and dealing with outbound messages, communication options, and getting people connected to the correct sub or special pages (combo of communication and navigation options).

Next, we got talking about building out custom skins (wrappers of the logic and data) and how that plays into the mix. We did some light pitching and talking about different packaging and marketing options. Some of the subjects that we chatted about were things like ski area, gun shooting lanes, classes, and then working with people in those industries to build and test out products and services. Basically, have or get a dream, build it, and then use people who are in that industry to test and give feedback on interface, navigation, user experience, flow, and functionality requirements.

On the marketing and sales side, if we have someone who is using our product in a specific industry, that testimonial does tons for helping others in that industry to be willing to jump on board. We have also found that if we find someone who is in an industry and they are willing to help, provide feedback, beta test, and give ideas... that is like gold and helps the process get smoother and smoother. It is amazing how a little bit of icing makes the cake look that much better.

Expanding into other horizons, we really want to do this. Our conversation circled back around to the dream it up, push on it, and we'll help you wire that up type model. You dream it up, we'll wire it up. Making things simple, powerful, and easy. Awesome words/phrases, harder to do, but possible. We also talked about opening our eyes and minds to what is possible. Being able to see and/or imagine is sometimes harder than you think. Once we can see it, the next phase is letting our users and clients catch that vision. Once you can transfer the vision, others start helping to beat that drum and making it happen. Share the vision!

As we look at the MVP (minimal viable product or minimal viable plan) type approach, we get pulled out of the dream land and back into - what are the next step or steps that need to happen. You can't lose sight of the goal, but you also have to make it work (along the way) vs just the dream at the end of the tunnel. Having said that... one thing that has been very successful for us is... get them hooked on one aspect and then letting them go and start dreaming. They'll start putting the pieces together. You just have to get that process started. Sometimes with an MVP type approach and then let it grow from there.

Here are a couple of other topics that were discussed: saved reports and connecting to them, other future projects (fracture), reviewing topics listed above, automated and predictive logic, aggregates and quick starts, templates, build your own processes (data assembly line and flex bubbles or flex pods), and other topics. Good meeting. Lots of new ideas and also firming up some of the older ones that keep circling around.