Hi there! I'm Dev, one half of the two-person team behind ThinkTau, the studio we are just starting to build.
The odd thing about this particular introduction is that I don't actually write code. At all. Every single website we build is front-end designed by me (using AI tools to produce code), and not a single line of code does I write myself the traditional way. One year ago, I would've considered that a deal-breaker to starting a development studio. Instead, I realized that it redefines what my role in the studio is - less about being able to type faster, and more about about having a better eye for what the thing that is being built should look like, and being obsessive enough about the details that the AI tools miss.
My co-founder takes over on the backend side of things, and he's a proper developer, capable of writing clean and efficient code. The tools he uses to build the backend are also AI-assisted, but he has a deeper understanding of what goes into an application architecture. Between the two of us, we cover frontend and backend development, with me focusing on the design aspects and the decisions about the details, and him writing code to implement the features we discuss.
As far as I know, most agencies that build websites at our level of scale have one dominant process. They buy a template, customize the headers and the color scheme, and call it their own. We do the exact opposite, our process involves building a website from scratch, without using any page builders or themes. We design every detail ourselves (because we don't have the option of presenting a design document to another person, or a team, who can implement it). That approach might not be accelerating us, but it is sustainable. And it creates value, we are capable of delivering something different than the majority of our competitors.
No clients to speak of, and not a single case study to show, just a few demos, and the general idea to keep in mind. I write this here because I have found feedback from people on community such as this one to be the most valuable.
It is also why I'm asking for thoughts on the subject. I'd rather hear the "here's what you're not accounting for" now, before I'm three months in and it's expensive to fix.
Have you launched a product or service where the tools and approaches you used were out of the ordinary for the industry you were in? What was the reaction like, when you told people what you were doing? Did it impact you negatively, to begin with?
[link] [留言]