It's great that Jack Dorsey used Twitter's recent Flight conference to publicly apologize for the way the company has historically treated app developers, but he may have an even better way of making it up to them.
Speaking from the Flight conference stage, Dorsey expressed regret that the company had tried to wrest back control from those creating third-party Twitter clients, and used one of his first major public outings since resuming the CEO position to try and extend an olive branch. Indie developers who want to achieve anything close to Dorsey's success, however, may do better to follow his example than merely listen to his words.
A few weeks ago on Forbes, for example, business book author Kevin Kruse unearthed a quote from an interview Dorsey gave three years ago, in which he talk about how he balanced the work he was doing both at Twitter and his mobile payments startup, Square:
"The way I found that works for me is I theme my days. On Monday, at both companies, I focus on management and running the company. Tuesday is focused on product. Wednesday is focused on marketing and communications and growth. Thursday is focused on developers and partnerships. Friday is focused on the company and the culture and recruiting. Saturday I take off, I hike. Sunday is reflection, feedback, strategy and getting ready for the week."
According to Kruse, this is a common trait among a number of successful entrepreneurs, and he offers some tips for those leading teams of people in how to make it work for them. It may be a little different for app developers who are often working largely on their own, but I think one version of a "themed week" could go something like this:
Monday: All about the app or mobile game. Writing code, iterating new versions, developing prototypes and so on.
Tuesday: Focus on discoverability. Look at app store optimization strategies, mobile marketing such as ads, cross-promotions and other techniques.
Wednesday: Fine-tune your app or mobile game's engagement. Explore push notifications to get consumers to come back, or create new experiences and features that bring additional value.
Thursday: Make it about monetization. Evaluate your use of in-app purchases, affiliate programs or other ways to generate revenue from consumers.
Friday: A great day to focus on analytics. What's worked, what hasn't and how can you optimize or tweak things for the week to come.
I'm suggesting the weekends can be treated as days off for developers, and of course you could vary these themes based on your own personal levels of energy throughout the week. The point is that Dorsey is an example of someone who started something from nothing and reached great heights. You don't have to have been a developer attending Flight to aim just as high. --Shane