It’s the bit that precedes “Build, Measure, Learn”.
I’ve collected many of the things I’ve hacked together to demonstrate an idea. Sometimes they turn into full-on startup ideas, sometimes they pootle along and I add a few features from time to time, sometimes they’re just useful for the day or to show how something might work, sometimes they totally don’t work after a few weeks.
Some of these hacks are from hack days, others are me playing during weekends/evenings, others are paid-for.
My general approach is to use the limitation of only having one or two days to make something to my advantage. Through limitation you get simplicity and a focussed execution. As I’ve progressed with this, I’ve got to the point where I can sit with someone, have an idea, and the next day have something branded, partially working and deployed on the web to look at and play with.
It’s a really exciting, joyful, surprising process and I think of it as sketching with code.
You can read a bit more about Hack, Play, Learn in a blog post on the subject.
If you’d like me to hack on something with you, get in touch.