Welcome to Nik Systems Blog Post 7, covering product development and growth of Nik Systems through September 10, 2020.

Many people see the first day of the year as a time for new beginnings, but for me it’s always been the coming of fall.  Which has become increasingly evident by the amber flush beginning to decorate our elm trees out back.  Per custom, I’ve become reflective with the change of season.

This time last year, I was hip deep in the conceptual design process for developing Nik Systems.  I gave a lot of thought to color schemes and potential business models, I also tried to decide which skill set I could most readily apply to serve my potential customers.  But, admittedly, I didn’t give much thought to the possibility of a pandemic or how it might affect my plans.  Like all of you, I’m painfully aware of the stark realities of our situation now.

I hear a lot of people talk about this being an unprecedented season in our lives.  However, I disagree.  Human history is packed with challenges and difficulty of all sorts.  Even the sickness and social unrest of today isn’t new.  What might be fresh to our experience is the response of our elected leaders and communities to both.  The pervasive stress and anxiety we feel is palpable and real.  It would be silly too ignore that fact but, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by our circumstance, allow me to be a voice of reassurance.  We’re going to be fine.

We the people of Northern New York, and Americans in general, are hearty folk.  We’re innovative and tough, and we have a long track record that proves it.  Forbearance, careful observation, and unified action are the key components to overcoming hard times.  We’re going to get there, but in the meantime, lets focus on what we can do right now to make things a little better for ourselves and our local community.
With that in mind it makes sense to announce a shift in focus at Nik Systems.

As fall settles in, and the excitement of summer gives way to the long thoughtful nights of winter, we’ll be moving into a new season of product development at Nik Systems.  A building up of our Free Initial Consult service. 

Details at this point are sketchy, but we intend to shore up our free service, maximize its value for small business leaders, and make sure they are properly equipped to guide process development decisions for their companies.
Development of Nik Systems Free Initial Consult Service starts immediately, and we plan to launch the redesign of the service in 2021.  As always, we’ll document our journey on Nik Systems blog and provide updates via social media. 

To follow development of our Free Initial Consult Service, on Facebook or LinkedIn, search #ficadev.
Wish us the best of luck on our new adventure.  If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about how we can help make your business stronger, please don’t hesitate to reach out through any of our contact paths on Nik Systems website or through social media.
Have a blessed day!

About the Author
Stewart Nicholas is a U.S. Army combat-veteran who served as a team leader with the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) on Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan.  After leaving the military, he went on to provide over a decade of service to the non-profit industry and founded Nik Systems, a community minded business consultancy located in Northern New York.  He holds a B.S. in Information Systems from SUNY Empire State College and is a Certified ScrumMaster (SCM) through Scrum Alliance.

As owner of Nik Systems, I’d like to welcome our readers to Nik Systems Blog Post 6, covering product development and growth of Nik Systems through September 2, 2020.

Since our last update on August 18th, we’ve been working hard to craft our Brand Summary and tell our story on Facebook.  As in all our development work we’ve encountered some success, and failure, and gained some valuable lessons learned during this Sprint; chiefly the risk of depending on third-party platforms (such as Facebook) to be a stable home for the content we develop, and the need to focus on owned content in the development of our brand.

In this, and all future product development work at Nik Systems, our center objective remains the same; to produce a valuable, done, and potentially releasable change to our product or service.  In the case of this Sprint we decided to hold our release in abeyance, in response to changes occurring on the Facebook platform.  However, we chose to demo it here for the benefit of all our supporters, and as a point of discussion for those who follow our development work on our blog.

Our Brand Summary
As an agile company, nearly  all the work we do at Nik Systems exist in a living state, so it’s important to note the version of our Brand Summary appearing below is subject to change at any point in a future iteration. 

The current version of our Brand Summary reads as follows:
“Nik Systems provides an important service for neighboring businesses on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.  Modern small business teams face a pool of problems difficult enough to challenge the most seasoned of small business leaders.   Any of which can negatively impact their ability to reliably deliver the range of high-quality products and services their customers have grown to expect.

We specialize in solving the adaptive problems small business teams face.  By partnering with your team, we develop a rich understanding of your challenges, and help align your resources to achieve your goals.

We manage a scalable service portfolio that can provide value for an operation of any size.  Whether you are a solopreneur working hard to get your startup off the ground, or an established business with 20 staff and an active client base, our services can be tailored to meet your need.”

What was Accomplished
The following Product Backlog Items (PBIs) appearing on our Product Backlog were completed during this Sprint (largely appearing in Use-Case format below):

• As a visitor to Nik Systems’ blog, I want a short Author Biography, so that I can understand the perspective and credibility of the person writing the post
• As a visitor to Nik Systems’ blog, I want a blog post on Sprint Planning for development of Nik Systems Brand Summary, so that I can understand the process and features associated with development of the brands story
• As a visitor to Nik Systems’ blog, I want a blog post covering the Sprint Review process associated with development of the company’s Brand Summary, so that I can understand the process and thought that went into development of the brands story

Development and inclusion of a short Author Biography in Post appearing on Nik Systems blog occurred prior to the completion of this Sprint; and the change was in fact released with Blog Post 5.

On August 18, 2020 we published Blog Post 5 which provided a detailed summary and introduction to the work scheduled for completion during this Sprint.

At the time this Post is published we will have satisfied the requirement to publish a Sprint Review covering the work that was accomplished during this Sprint.

What was not Accomplished
The following PBIs were not completed during this Sprint:

• As a potential customer visiting Nik Systems’ Facebook page, I want to see a brand summary, so that I can easily connect with the brand
• Update Nik Systems’ Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs); Integrate a Release Communications Procedure

During this Sprint Facebook released a new version of the user interface for the platform that powers their service.  This change is most apparent when accessed through the web browser of a personal computer.  In doing so they seem to have buried or omitted the “Our Story” content section that would have been used to hold our Brand Story language.  As such, we will withhold this content until some future time when the content is available or easily accessible to the public.

A more inclusive update to Nik Systems’ SOPs will occur later to include Release Communication protocol and internal instructions for provision of our Free Initial Consult service.

Thanks for Reading
Your feedback is crucial to the continued growth of Nik Systems and development of the services we provide.  So, please don’t hesitate to reach out with feedback or comments.
Thank you for your continued support of our mission to build stronger businesses and a more resilient community on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.

About the Author
Stewart Nicholas is a U.S. Army combat-veteran who served as a team leader with the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) on Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan.  After leaving the military, he went on to provide over a decade of service to the non-profit industry and founded Nik Systems, a community minded business consultancy located in Northern New York.  He holds a B.S. in Information Systems from SUNY Empire State College and is a Certified ScrumMaster (SCM) through Scrum Alliance.