Today’s january 28th. The anticipated launch date of my Headway Hero video tutorial.
Anyone who knows me well, will attest that I’m quite serious (arguably to the extent of being rigid) about dates, appointments, and my work. I hate when people change plans or don’t live up to their promises.
Yet here I am. Is there a Headway Hero tutorial to launch today? Well – yeah… both yes and no. Yes there is a tutorial. Is it finished? Regrettably, no. Not to the extent that I’m comfortable releasing it.
Last summer I took on the job of teaching WordPress from a-z, to a mixed group of beginners and intermediates.
I didn’t take on that assignment for the sake of money. I did it, because I wanted direct teaching experience. I wanted to challenge myself. I’ve given three WordCamp Denmark talks, but I’d never been in front of a “class” before, and not for such an extended period of time. 7 full days in person + webinars in between.
The biggest takeway from that experience, is that it’s a very bad idea to begin a course without the necessary prerequisites and structure being firmly in place. The framework, the learning objectives, the outline: all need to be there at the beginning. Else, the learners will (understandably) get confused, impatient and frustrated.
I promised myself I would never let that happen again.
Is my Headway tutorial “ready for consumption” with the above experience in mind? No. I’m sorry, even though I would love to say the opposite. Yes, all the pieces are there, content is NOT the missing link, trust me. Quite the contrary.
A major task, is the editing process. I normally spend around 30+ hours designing a small business website like the one I’ve based the course around. Imagine the resulting, huge amount of (screencast) material to edit (refine) down to a coherent, manageable, interesting course that makes as much sense as possible, from beginning to end. It takes an insane amount of time. Add to tha the fact that I’m not a native english speaker, so the words doesn’t always flow as easily out of my mouth as I’d wish. I have to think a lot about what I say and how I say it. It reminds me of the nice F.R. David 80s song “Words… don’t come easy… to me…”
=)
Anyway. I’m left with a choice:
Option A – Spend another three weeks working sweatshop hours 7 days a week, frantically, to perfectionistically (is that even a word?) produce “the perfect online course”.
or
Option B – I could decide to release the course gradually. Getting your feedback along the way, giving you a soft start, and myself an opportunity to finalise it, one step at a time.
I’ll choose option B:)
So (hopefully – fingers crossed) within this week, I’ll open up the course, BUT be aware that it won’t be complete. New lessons will be added as quickly as possible, over the coming weeks. But the flow will be logical.
I look so much forward to getting you aboard!
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Hi Olivier! Thanks for the update, and I know you know I’m happy you’re picking option B. Yeah! I’m looking forward to it. 🙂
Oliver, so sorry about the typo! Didn’t mean to misspell your name! 🙁
No problem – I like being called Olivier;-)
Option B sounds good to me. We can only take in so much at a time anyway. I am really looking forward to what you will be offering. I’ve learned a lot of basics in Headway and look forward to refining my skills even further. We appreciate you being available as a resource.
Thanks Michele – looking forward to your participation.
Plan B sounds like a good plan to me, Oliver!
I’ve been looking very much forward to it as well, but I’m always willing to wait more for something that I know is going to be awesome!
It’s a bit like making Pulled Pork, sure, first you gotta marinade the beauty for 12 hours (24 hours if you strive for excellence).
Then it takes another 10-12 hours of patience, while it’s slowly cooking in the oven at 110 degrees, until it’s finally ready to take out.
But then it will also be incredibly tender, juicy, and packed with flavor from all the marinade, and because it was so respectfully treated in the oven, (no rushing by turning up the heat, which causes the meat to become tough) the result will make everyone at the dinner table happy, which makes the entire process all worth it.
That’s how I think about this course anyway, great things take time, and that’s OK 🙂
If you strive for perfection you’ll never be fully satisfied (since nothing is perfect), excellence however, is reachable for anyone willing to put in the work, and I’m sure that’s the case with Headway Hero!
Btw, I’ll gladly provide feedback if you need some testing before you officially release the first handful of lessons. I also need to shoot you an email so we can find a day for that Irish Coffee hehe, I’ve just been so busy myself this month (launching my own business) that I haven’t got around to it! 🙂
Hi Oliver,
I understand! You took a good choice for plan B. I think most people don’t have the time to go through a course in one time, They will take it by parts. So give us a start next week and will be happy. And we will be happy to get some more every week till it is finished.
Can you tell us something how you’re making the course. Which software and which wordpresstheme are you using for it? That would be interesting to know.
And you could give us some info about the structure of the course. How many lessons and…
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Wilco
Hey Wilco
Great thoughts on the interval. I hope to release the lessons faster than on a weekly basis though. But time (and user feedback) will “tell” what frequency will work out best.
I’m using ScreenFlow for the Mac, and of course the Headway WordPress theme;)
I’ve been thinking about sharing my experiences re: production of the course. Lessons learnt, equipment used, etc. But that would be be after the course is completed. Nice to know you’re interested!
Oliver
Hi Oliver
Thanks for the update. I’m absolutely cool with it. I know the result will be worth the wait and it’s not as if I can’t use Headway in the meantime. Keep up the great work and I look forward to the course in instalments. That’ll actually work better for me anyway as I wouldn’t have time to digest it all in one go.
Cheers
Jon
Well-observed Jon: digesting new knowledge (and especially transforming it into *skills*) takes time. I myself have a big backlog of online courses I’d like to go through. But time is finite.
Cheers:)
Appreciate your efforts and dedication to this…
Merci, Mike!
=)
B is fine by me as well, although I have so many sites I want to build and rebuild and they hopefully will be Headway and with your guidance 🙂
Oliver, I know what you are feeling. The only downside of perfection is perfection. Determining when something is perfect can be a never ending process, because nothing can ever be perfect. Sometimes it is best to just get it out there in a decent shape. There may be some criticism and complaints, but at the same time you will be able get input which you could then to adapt the product. Instead of just having a product, have a supportive community. The community will be your support.
If you need some testers, I am sure everyone on here will volunteer. Hey even think of testing a class with say 10 persons on Google hangouts – saves $$$$.
Get some sleep. 🙂
You are so right Russ! Really. I know what you’re saying on a gut level, but doing it that way – hah! that’s a different story. Trying to change old thought patterns and habits though. Challenge my fears, and do things differently than I do by instinct (embrace the community vs. perfectionism etc).
After yesterdays blog post, on my way to bed, I realised I may be thinking about my work like an artist thinks about his/hers. It doesn’t necessarily have to be perfect. Perfect is an ideal, that can never truly exist. I’m a believer of the japanese concept of wabi-sabi. But rather, I have this inner determination / expectance, that what I create should be all that it can be. What it should be. Fulfill its potential. Reach the image I have on my inner “screen” of imagination.
So I often have a hard time letting go because I can always find something to add or improve. I know so much about things that interest me, and my mind tends to associate things in a mindmap manner, so every little idea tends to grow like the beanstalk in Jack and the Beanstalk 😀 My brain is usually in “rampant brainstorming-session mode” with no on/off switch;)
Yet, the images on my minds inner screen are not ones of complex, scattered end-results, but ones of refinement, simplicity and (hopefully) elegance. And THAT is the hard part. The refinement process is a huge, huge task. At least to me. Like weeding in a garden full of weeds.
It’s a GREAT learning experience to me though. I LOVE this challenge. Making myself better, along the way. Only one way: and that’s FFWD.
=)
Awh man! I so wanted it today! Lol, but I know what it is to want perfection and absolutely the best, so I’ll definitely be waiting for it. Thank you for the update Oliver!
Thank YOU for being patient Sasha-Shae:) Will do my best to get it ready as soon as possible.
Oliver
Thanks for the update Oliver, I was actually looking forward to this for about 3 weeks 🙁 and got on your early list for (free course). Anyway I’m currently getting some private headway tutoring so that’s keeping me busy, but still looking forward to your course. Thanks
Hi Mark
I hope it’ll be worth the wait – I’m sorry for the delay.
=)
Oliver
Your Option B sounds like it will take a very long time to finalize.
I certainly hope it won’t, Mike;) I have other plans I’m eager to pursue (related to this one getting done) so trust me: I push as if
obsessedpossessed:)Thanks for the hard work, Oliver. It’s much appreciated. I look forward to working through the course with you.
For me both are fine. As I said before, don’t worry. Progress is been made, so there is no “show stopper” problem, it´s just the time the final tweaks requires. Quoting Blizzard (the maker of World of Warcraft games): “its done when its done”, and they lose a lot of deadlines, but alway sell million of copies.
Yeah. Earlier today I had a chat with Clay (Griffiths, Headway…) and couldn’t help thinking about the delay of Headway 3.6 release, which he originally anticipated would have been out around August:) Things take their time, as you say.
Starting to see the merit of Apple’s approach: total secrecy. But then, I know myself – I need deadlines and accountability to external stakeholders – to keep my eyes on the ball until completion. Otherwise I tend to get distracted by other, newer, more novel projects. So I put myself in this potential situation by purpose.
I’m glad most seem to be understanding though.
Your support means a lot to me Cesar. Always warms my heart. Really. Thanks!
Oliver
Thanks man! WordPress community is a big family!
Indeed – one of the best things about WordPress:)