In 1998 I was contracted by Apple Computer to help create the Apple Learning Interchange or ALI as we referred to it. I was part of a team of Apple employees, contract programmers and my team tasked with developing this site from scratch.
A little about ALI. Apple wanted a place where K-12 teachers could find classroom resources online – and discuss learning plans. The challenge was there was no central database of great teaching resources. Google had not been invented yet. And most of the existing search engines included a lot of inappropriate material for the classroom.
I was the implementation person. It was my responsibility to be sure that what we dreamed up in the design meetings could actually get done. And I was the person responsible for making sure it DID get done!
So I hired a team of 15 content experts from across the country. Since we were going to be working online exclusively, I hired them via email. I figured if they couldn’t communicate well in an email, they weren’t going to be able to work with the team.
For two years we worked together virtually. Never once did we even have an audio conference! Long distance was still expensive and there were no telephone conference lines available to the public. But we pulled off a HUGE undertaking with my 15 content experts working virtually.
We had our first and only face-to-face meeting to celebrate the official opening of ALI – and conversation was awkward. Where we could talk for hours online, when face to face, there was nothing to say! It was a strange sensation. But one we all seemed to share.
Once ALI was launched I traveled the country working with model school districts to implement and evaluate the program. I even spent a week in Sweden, helping them implement the system district-wide.
It was a wonderful opportunity and a great learning experience. And it gave me the confidence to create Outsource Your Membership Site. While the product was originally geared toward membership sites only, it has evolved into a how-to blueprint for outsourcing. After all, I’ve had the experience!
And that’s exactly what you want to consider when you are deciding on which products to produce. What do YOU have experience in doing that others want to know about? Often it’s a task or skill that we take for granted. But when you hear others asking “how did you DO that?” – then you know it’s something you should turn into a product!
