Update July 2021 - A summer tutorial for a new product

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 - Gertjan Filarski & Jauco Noordzij

About a month ago, Jauco and I sent out a link to "Project-X" https://www.fourdays.nl/posts/tutorial/. It offered a glimpse of an application that we both would love to build and use. But there is a huge gap between us thinking we have a "great" idea, and the rest of the world agreeing. So we decided to test its worth first, and created an animated tutorial for a tool that did not yet exist :) We asked about fifty people from across Europe, the USA, and the Middle East, for comments.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. So good, in fact, that we had to start tempering expectations :) Many people were convinced by our animating skills and asked for early-access. We also got many questions, which taught us a lot and helped us start doing the right things. So thank you all for your detailed feedback, your inquiries, comments, critiques, and time. Without it we would not have been able to take the next step with confidence. We grouped the questions and our answers into a FAQ - that you can find here.

So where are we?

Take a moment to watch the product tutorial that we created in June. And maybe read through some of the questions that we answered over the last month.

Since last year we've run experiments with a calculation engine that will eventually run under the hood of this new product. That engine is pretty solid by now. The replies helped us prioritize the areas to focus on.

Based on the feedback we are now busy writing the algorithm that draws the actual tables of data on the screen. We are spending a lot of time to design tables that are not convoluted with many dimensions and variations, and that, at the same time, are quick to serve hundreds of thousands of data points. Finding the proper balance between usability and scalability is a significant challenge that takes time, but we think we almost cracked it.

Over the summer months both Jauco and myself will write the user interface for a very first basic alpha version of what you can see in the tutorial. A draft of the core user experience is finished. At least as far as we can without feedback from real people playing around with it. If all goes well, the alpha becomes available for trials in September - fingers crossed! This is for now still a two men show :)

And after that? We expand the alpha and add features based on your feedback. Eventually we'll move to a public beta. Oh, and we start the process to acquire funding to get new people onboard! We must increase our pace and start growing next year.

Your impact on our work

If you have examples of data that you want us to look at while developing the platform: please get in touch! Don't hesitate to mail me at: gertjan.filarski@fourdays.nl. This is really the moment you can make a significant impact on the direction of our work.

Many have already reached out and sent us sheets that: analyse safety & logistics data in the energy industry; verify components in aerospace projects; forecast financial asset and stock market trends; and plan academic research projects - to name but a few. Thanks so much for that!

But there is always room for more. If you have an interesting and challenging example then send it over. We'll definitely give it a good look!

So that wraps up this update. I wish you all a great summer and will get back to you next month. We intend to announce the name of Project X! Right now, we are toying around with a couple of ideas and pitched some here and there. In August the website becomes available as well where you can find these updates, the FAQ, and much more information on what is, for now: Project X.

With the very best wishes for happy summer holidays!

Gertjan Filarski - Fourdays

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