It all starts with a powerpoint....

Ideas are great.
Ideas are cheap.
Ideas are power.
Ideas are the engine of innovation.

Ideas spread.
Ideas are documented.
Ideas must be sold
Ideas end up in powerpoint slides

You're done.

If it were only so easy. In my career in various capacities of product creation life cycle, I have seen thousands of Powerpoint presentations and have come to the conclusion that Powerpoints are the business equivalent of new years resolutions. Product managers create lavish decks detailing all the possibilities and reasons why this next product will change the world. Designers put amazing mock ups of the coolest UIs and whiz bang interaction diagrams that will make a product so sweet that you'll want to lick it.

At this point the world is all yours. At this point, the Powerpoint deck represents all the possibilities of a great product. The only problem is that the product is only an idea, despite all that work, it's vaporware. In software, the product has to be crafted into code to actually be a product. And ultimately that code has to be compiled or turned into something that will actually run on a computer.

Wouldn't it be great if we could create a machine that takes the ideas captured in a powerpoint presentation and convert it into code. Where our imagination is instantly realized. But there isn't, so when I work on a product, I always remind myself:

"Powerpoints don't Compile"

So until they do, you'll have to figure out how to convert powerpoints into code. That's what this blog is all about, how do you take the ideas in those powerpoints and turn them into code.