First off: We are incredibly greatful for the response we have received so far. Thanks to all of you!
When we published the book - of course - we had plans. We also had vanity metrics in mind. We wanted:
- 200 Downloads
- 50 filled out feedback forms.
What happened is nothing short of amazing: We have more than 1100 downloads from close to 50 countries. But: We are short of reviews and feedback.
Why do we need feedback? Short question- long explanation: The whole book is a multi variable experiment to us. There are a lot of things unknown to us:
- Should we even write a book. apart from the vanity effect of writing a book, the question is: Is there a market for a book, which means are there interested readers out there, which means do we have topics that people are interested in? We don't have a clue. (Still.) The question, of course, is - why embark on a long (high WIP-limit, large batch size) unpredictable journey if it may not be relevant?
- Which of the topics we could write about are most requested, driving most demand.
- General questions on writing a first book: which format(s), normal publisher vs. self published, distribution channels (eBook vs. print book), etc. We had the trigger when amazon came up with the amazon single concept, which made us think - ah, we can just publish something in small batch size whenever we want. (And we already drfited away from that a little, I guess).
- A million other things, basically we don't know a thing except that we some experience in some aspects of Lean and Kanban that might be worth spreading.
- Is a German language edition important, or will English suffice?
This means, circulating a small shot and geting feedback on it is a chance for us to learn. Hence the feedback form.
As we said before, the first part has worked out brilliantly! We have more than 1100 (!) downloads in the various formats. (Still more tan half of it in PDF format, which to me as a die hard kindle fan was the first surprise - I thought most people in our community already ditched paper books, PDF etc. for the more convenient and functional formats of .mobi and .epub.)
Now comes the hard part. We planned for 50 feedbacks. We have ... less than 10. Of course, we can't expect too much yet - the book simpy needs to be read first. Also, of course, people have to *care* to give feedback. So, not getting the feedback is the first indication of not being on the right track. We also think, feedback needs time as opposed to ... downloading (for free).
The feedback we have is actually already great as it includes the statement from someone important to us and the community that it gave him the last impulse he needed to also start writing a book. (If this is all the effect we had, it's also fine!)
In short: We would *love* to hear from you:
http://bit.ly/replenishment_feedback or in free form to replenishment@portagile.com
Thanks for staying with us
Arne and Markus
