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EVENT DETAILS |
TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs is a series of workshops created by Nelly Yusupova, CTO of Webgrrls International, designed to teach non-technical entrepreneurs and business people about the entire process of communicating with, understanding, and managing technology teams and projects.
TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs is NOT a conference!. It is a 2-day intensive bootcamp designed to teach you a lot of information in a short amount of time. Come prepared to work, learn, and share.
The workshops will start at 9:00AM and each workshop builds on the previous workshop, so, it is very important that you allocate the entire two or three days to learning. Arrive on time to ensure that you don't miss any of the information...we will be referencing in the afternoon what we learned in the morning and we will be referencing on day 2, what we learn on day 1.
I created TechSpeak after speaking to thousands of entrepreneurs in my workshops and seminars at conferences across the country and hearing the horror stories about their tech people and tech projects getting out of control. I first blamed the developers and I could not understand how these developers could morally function like this or stay in business!
But the more I thought about it, the more I started realizing that the problem is not always with developers...sometimes...only sometimes...it's the entrepreneur.
Part of the problem for the non-technical entrepreneur is:
Not knowing the process of building web and mobile applications
Not knowing how to communicate their ideas so that the tech team will know EXACTLY what to do
Not knowing how to hire the right tech people
Not knowing how to manage the project and just trusting that the developers will take care of everything
Not knowing the right questions to ask to ensure the right decisions are made for the business and that all of the technology decisions are aligned with business goals.
2 Days of Hands On, Practical, Tactical Workshops!
Day 1 - Building Your Prototype Hide All Descriptions
8:00am-9:00am
Registration & Networking
9:00am-10:30am
How to build software the "Lean" way
Buidling software the traditional way is often too expensive and inefficient. You commit 6 months to a year or even more, commit a lot of money to develop your idea and then you launch. It maybe a big success...but What if no one buys? Did you build the wrong solution? Did you target the wrong market? ... it is a big bet and it's high risk!
"Lean" uses a scientific methodology to discover what works with less waste. It faster to market, has customer validation, and it costs less.
In this workshop we will explore how lean methodology applies to software development and how you can take smaller bets and lower risks and increase your chances of hitting success!
10:30am-12:00pm
How to wireframe & prototype your idea or project
Learn why wireframing and prototyping are essential to the development process and how it can save you a LOT of money. It will allow you to create, test, and refine the functionality of your project BEFORE a line of code is written!
What you'll learn:
Wireframing & Prototyping Tools
How to Wireframe your ideas
The many ways of building a prototype
Hands on Practice: Build a Prototype of a Simple Application
Using the techniques that you will learn, you will build a prototype of a simple Mobile or Web application without writing a line of code!
12:00pm-1:00pm
Lunch
1:00pm-2:00pm
How to price & budget your project
In this workshop, we will go though all of the questions that you will need to ask and get answers to, to control costs, ensure quality, and ensure timely delivery of your project
What you'll learn:
Methodologies for determining budgets
Project estimating methods
Determining complexity, scope, and robustness
2:00pm-4:00pm
How to determine the best technology solutions for executing your project
Custom Code? The Cloud? 3rd Party Applications? Which is best? Do you have to custom build everything? Learn to determine if 3rd party or Cloud based applications can be leveraged to save you time and money and allow you to bring your ideas to market faster.
What you'll learn:
Advantages & disadvantages of using 3rd party or Cloud based applications
The questions you need to ask before choosing a 3rd party application
Hosted 3rd Party solutions vs. APIs
When should you custom build something and when you should use 3rd Party solutions
4:00pm-4:30pm
Break
4:30pm-6:00pm
How to manage your project using agile project management techniques
Poor project management is the cause of many project failures. In this workshop you will learn project management techniques so you can take control of your projects and ensure your projects execute on time and on budget. We will also discuss Agile software development methodologies that everyone today should be using to rapidly build, test and change (when necessary) new features and incrementally develop based on customer feedback.
What you'll learn:
Simple agile project management tactics, techniques, and best practices for breaking down into manageable milestones a project effectively.
How to manage a development team.
How to monitor the success of a project and ensure that your software meets your business goals.
Project management software applications built specifically for Agile software development teams.
Hands on Practice: Honing in on Project Management Skills
Using the techniques that you will learn, you will practice breaking down a projects into milestones, planning and entering tasks into project management software, and tracking your projects' progress.
Day 2 - Developing & Scaling Hide All Descriptions
8:00am-9:00am
Registration & Networking
10:15am-12:15pm
How to hire and grow a technology team
You have the idea. Now, you need the team to help you realize your goals. We all know that hiring the right people is necessary in any organization and the hiring decisions you make will have long reaching effect on your business. This core team will not only shape the future success of your organization, but the culture of your company as well.
You will learn how to hire a-player developers that fit into your company culture and if you decided to outsource your work how to ensure that you don't lose your money.
What you'll learn:
How to hire a-player developers that fit into your company culture
How to hire in-house developers vs. outsource to a development company in the US vs. outsource to a development company offshore.
Tips for working with outsourced developers.
Advantages & disadvantages of off-shoring and tips to ensure that you build a quality product.
12:15pm-1:30pm
Lunch
1:30pm-3:00pm
How to track what your users are doing on your site
You're live but the work is far from over. Learn the tools you can use to see how users are using your application so you can refine and improve the product.
What you'll learn:
How to track what features users are actually using on your site.
How to listen to your customers.
How to determine what features to build next.
Tools & applications to help you track user behavior.
What different testing techniques you can apply to your site to help you optimize success.
3:30pm-4:30pm
How to build your technology infrastructure for scale
You will learn, in "plain English", what is the right infrastructure to start with, and how to ensure that you can scale as your business grows.
This workshop will define all of the "tech jargon" that you will need to know so you can better communicate and understand systems administrators. We are going to cover a lot of TechSpeak but don't worry, it'll be in a language that you'll understand!
What you'll learn:
What Server Infrastructure you will need at different stages of your business
What Database Infrastructure you will need at different stages of your business
How to determine what programming language is best for your project
How to set up your Application Infrastructure to allow you to add to and build complexity as your business grows
When is the right time to scale?
The different ways of scaling
How to determine and prevent your application downtime
Automating code deployment
4:45pm-6:00pm
How to create a tech plan
Well maintained tech plans are important to any business and can save you a lot of time and money when you need acess to certain information, bringing new employees up to speed, and sharing knowledge across the company.
What you'll learn:
What is a Tech Plan & why you need it
The anatomy of a Tech Plan
How to store and maintain Tech Plans
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