As a software developer, I'm familiar with the principles of Agile software development. I've been working with processes like SCRUM and Kanban for most of the last decade. But many times, I have experienced a disconnect between the principles we were applying in our development work and the application of these principles to the business itself. This disconnect made any attempt to apply Agile principles futile because of our inability to properly close the build-measure-learn loop.

I've spent most of the last year on a startup Incubator programme trying to develop a side-project into a real business. This was a great experience and I learned a lot - most notably that the business idea I had didn't really work very well. But, it was music to my ears to hear the Agile principle applied and reinforced throughout the entire incubation programme. It was so refreshing to be taught that we needed to put product in front of customers, learn lessons and apply the lessons to the next version. However, many of these business will experience the opposite disconnect. They will try to apply Agile principles to the development of their product but due to having little knowledge of the software development process will be forced to outsource their development to third parties who will be operating at arm's length - out of the core agile build-measure-learn loop of the business. The result is a sub-optimal process that wastes time and money and ultimately produces a less than ideal product.

So I've set up The Agile Techie as a way to apply proper Agile Software Development principles to early-stage startups. Using a combination of our own tools, off-the-shelf products and bespoke software development, my mission is to help the non-technical founder build their digital vision to Minimum Viable Product stage and beyond - applying agile principles to the entire process. I don't want to be an external developer who just builds a product to a frozen spec and then forgets about it when the job is done. The Agile Techie's goal is to be the development partner for the early-stage startup until such a time as they can afford to recruit in-house technical expertise.

Our aim is to take our customer through 5 distinct stages of developing their product. Each stage will result in the entrepreneur knowing more about their product, its market fit and the likely costs to build it to a production-ready system. At each stage, the product will be used by customers and the entrepreneur will have the opportunity to learn from this interaction and apply this knowledge back into the next stage of their journey.

If you've got an idea for a digital service that you'd love to explore, contact us by mail at info@linkalist.io or by phone at +353 85 265 4240