Wk1 – Show and Tell!

Wheel of Questions!

I’m energized, but I’m also a little tired. It feels like the last morning of a Startup Weekend: the demo is coming, I’m proud of what we made, and I can still see six (or sixteen) things I’d fix if someone gave me one more hour.

The old Wheel of Questions had a few real users. It also had a problem I couldn’t ignore: CeeCee tried to add her questions, got frustrated, and went back to Wheel of Names. I wanted to give her a reason to try again.

So here it is, resurrected from the half bakery: Wheel of Questions 2.0. Pick an example and spin it. Then make your own. Paste in a list of questions and you’re ready to go, even without an account.

Of course, I had the dreaded installed base. I couldn’t bulldoze everyone’s wheels and claim eminent domain. Existing accounts, questions, and shared links had to keep working while I rebuilt the experience around them.

Once that was working, I wanted the spin to feel like an event. One stage became several, with artwork, a marquee, and lights that move around the wheel. I built a theme editor so I could position the pieces and tune the lighting myself. That’s how I ended up spending part of the week adjusting stage lighting for a spinning wheel.

I spent about 19 hours working with AI over the course of the week. The site is much closer to the thing I imagined, though my list of things to improve is still growing. For now, I want to see what happens when other people use it.

Give the wheel a spin, and please leave me a note in the suggestion box. Tell me what worked, what confused you, or what broke. I especially want to know how it feels to experience your first wheel.

Tomorrow is a new week, and a new project. Stay tuned!