Modern Optimist

I’ve been promising it for a while and it’s finally here… the first post in the Idea Bin category, the binning of ‘Reminder To Me’.

For those of you who have recently joined my blog, the ‘Idea Bin’ is a place where I can bury my bad (awesome-at-the-time) ideas. I’ll explain where I thought it had it’s appeal and you can have a good chuckle or maybe even add some input to improve on the idea.

The Elevator Pitch

‘Reminder To Me’ is a simple, easy to use, online reminder service based on a freemium model. I bought the domain reminderto.me.

It’s appeal

I wanted to create an uber simple online app where a user can signup within 15 seconds (name + email + timezone) and add events to be reminded of. Use case example:

1. Login
2. Add Event > Birthday
3. Event Title “John Birthday”
4. Event Date “September 13th”
5. Reminder time “One week before” + “On day”
6. Reoccurring ”Annually”
7. Hit Schedule button

The main appeal was going to be interface simplicity and the effortless way to add events.

Future Expansion with the Premium Model

• No ads in reminder email
• No ads on website
• SMS reminders
• iPhone App that syncs with online data
• Mini to-do-list app built in

Why It Failed

Numerous reasons…

Lots of competition

There was the no real x-factor differentiator to the competition other than simplicity:

• Remember The Milk – the leaders in my opinion
• Google Calendar – introduced email reminders
• Task.fm – See their innovative way to add reminders
• Gazillions other badly designed online apps

Development Time vs Return

Return was never guaranteed. It’s an idea that I’d love to fully outsource (not design or code at all) if my cash flow was thick and I didn’t mind if the idea failed.

Gut Feeling

It was never there that the idea would take off fast and be the next ‘thing’ people were looking for.

“Low Hanging Fruit” debate

This paragraph I can add to every failed idea. It would make more sense to spend my time on ideas that are more of a sure thing, that guarantee more of a return for the x amount of hours I would have put in this project. Read more about this concept over at Adii’s blog.

Final Thoughts

When I came across Task.fm we thought it was pretty much the nail in our idea’s coffin. But after investigating very infrequent twitter activity,  last blog March 2010 and some bits of the site are broken, it seems they’ve jumped ship… which sets off even more alarm bells! Why would such an innovative, smartly designed online app not care anymore… I can only assume the obvious, there is no real money in it.

I could be wrong and I still would love to use the uber simple ‘reminder to me’ app like the idea detailed above, but dev time vs return I feel is not worth it at my current time of life.

Let us know your thoughts and add anything constructive if you can:)