Towards the end of 2016 I embarked on a journey to build Footy Narrative, an online publication that caters to capturing stories, moments and the overall culture of soccer in Canada. I’m a huge soccer fan, so this site is a great platform for me to build what I love. It’s been a great learning experience and I’d like to highlight a couple of noteworthy takeaways that have emerged since I started building Footy Narrative.
Start Simple
Getting an idea off the ground doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Sometimes all you need to do is just start. Whether your idea involves creating a physical product or a digital one, all you need is a low fidelity prototype or a first iteration to begin. In my case, I’ve started by building a simple site using Squarespace and I’ll kick on from there.
Nothing Good Comes Easy
It’s been an interesting journey so far wth Footy Narrative. There are 3 core categories that make the site what it is. The first one is the story aspect, which I’ve been trying to immerse myself in very frequently. The second one is the insights from influencers/interview aspect, and the last piece is the culture of the sport in Canada aspect. So far, it’s been an interesting challenge finding and reaching out to influencers in addition to learning about them. I’ve also learnt that there’s a lot of time that needs to be invested in any idea to make it work. It hasn’t been 100% on the money but persistence is key and nothing good comes easy. I’m gathering data and using it to optimize and adjust as I go along.
Trust the Process
There are literally a thousand things I’d like to implement into the site but before I do, I have to take a step back to evaluate their usefulness and impact. I’ve got a pretty good process going right now (with room for improvement of course) but I’ll just trust the process and keep on building 🙂
Manny O 