Alex Ponomarev Passionate about software development and building great products http://www.alexponomarev.me 291 posts
Agile project management 10 Aug 2019 · 4 min read Developers at War with Uncertainty There’s a secret every seasoned project manager, product owner, and developer knows. It’s not the coding part that is hard. What’s hard is coming up with a realistic estimate and meeting the deadline. Read more
Launch 9 Aug 2019 · 4 min read You don’t need to build an app most of the times I’ve stumbled upon the short video of Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator. He is answering the biggest question of software founder has — when should you launch your startup? Read more
Design 2 May 2019 · 4 min read Streamline Your Design Process With Wireframing At some point, working with paper prototypes becomes impractical. When that’s the case, you might want to create a digital low-fidelity prototype, also called a wireframe. Read more
UX 1 May 2019 · 4 min read Using Personas to Create User-Centric Design A persona is a fictional character that represents a typical user of your application. And it’s very detailed. It describes the background, context, tasks, and goals of a user. Read more
Design 29 Apr 2019 · 4 min read How to Hire a Designer for Your Project To build an application, you need an interface, and to create an interface, you need a designer. Read more
Agile project management 29 Apr 2019 · 3 min read Writing Good User Stories Creating a user story is simple: first, you define a user role, an intended action, and a desired outcome. Then you arrange them in a sentence. And then…that’s it. Your user story is ready. Read more
Estimation 18 Feb 2019 · 4 min read How to Estimate an Agile Project With User Stories Estimating software projects is hard. Early on in the development process, you can’t precisely define the scope of a project. Because inevitably, the scope will change after development kicks off, since the team will have learned more about the project and its context by then. Read more
Agile project management 18 Feb 2019 · 4 min read Prioritizing User Stories in Agile Projects Software projects are surrounded by a high level of uncertainty. Even if developers or a consultant gives you a project estimate, until development begins, you won’t know exactly what resources you need to implement the user stories that you’ve planned for your next release. Read more
Marketing 18 Feb 2019 · 4 min read How to Market Your Product Before Launch I know many people who’ve created software products using this process: First they generate an idea, then they validate it, build the product, and then launch it…after launch, they start marketing. It’s straightforward, and it seems workable. Read more
CTO 18 Feb 2019 · 4 min read Building Your Development Process Around GitHub GitHub is a web-based hosting platform where you can host open-source projects and follow projects that you like and want to adopt. It uses Git, which is a distributed version-control system. Read more
Analytics 26 Jan 2019 · 4 min read Setting up analytics for your application Analytics are all about the visibility. Without proper data, you won’t know how your users interact with your app and if they are happy or not. You need analytics to get answers to basic questions. Read more
Continous integration 24 Jan 2019 · 4 min read Release management in agile project Once you have set up multiple environments for your application, it’s important to set up the proper release management process. It means that you should have a well-defined set of steps. Read more
Continous integration 23 Jan 2019 · 5 min read Setting up multiple environments for your app Continuous integration and testing of new features are at the heart of an agile software project. To implement them properly you need to set up environments for your app correctly. Read more
Testing 3 Jan 2019 · 4 min read Continous improvement and the feedback loop You might think that once you kick off the development process, most of the work should be done by developers that you’ve hired. While that's true to some extent you still have to spend plenty of time road mapping, planning, and managing the process. Read more
Agile project management 2 Jan 2019 · 4 min read Managing the software project day to day Compared to product management, project management is more tactical. It is as vital as keeping the strategic vision for your product. Even if your development team consists of only one person, you still need to make sure that all requirements are understood and deadlines are met. Read more
Agile project management 1 Jan 2019 · 4 min read Managing the product roadmap Once you’ve completed the preparation steps and assembled your team, it’s time to start building your app. However, where do you start? In what order should you build everything that you’ve outlined in the spec document? To figure that out you need to create a roadmap. Read more
Hiring 31 Dec 2018 · 5 min read Hiring remote developers to build your app If you don’t know anything about programming then finding the right developer might be a problem. Most of the times you will try to use somebody from your network, but good developers are rarely available for work, so the chances are that everyone you know is busy already. Read more
Requirements management 30 Dec 2018 · 5 min read Why you need to create the spec document for your product When I start talking about product specs, most people roll their eyes. A product spec is perceived as a large document that no one reads which takes forever to write. Read more