For quite some time, my friend Essam (opens new window) and I had been toying with the idea of pairing up on a live project. Despite our differing backgrounds—I primarily work on web-based backend applications and design solutions, while Essam's expertise lies in optimizing mobile applications—we believed our combined skill sets could generate something truly unique.

I first met Essam back in 2011 during the inaugural cycle of Flat6Labs (opens new window) in Egypt. He was launching his startup, F16apps (opens new window), which went on to develop an innovative Twitter client with features that, to this day, remain unmatched by the platform itself. At the same time, I was founding my own startup, Careerise (opens new window).

Fast forward to the present day, and Essam and I have decided to dedicate one hour per week to collaborate on a project, starting with the inception of an idea and culminating in the delivery of a minimum viable product (MVP). We've chosen to conduct our live sessions in Arabic, as we feel there is a lack of content on this subject in the language.

Our primary objective is to offer a glimpse into the process of transforming an idea into a tangible tech product. We aim to walk our audience through the various stages of development, from the conception of an idea to its eventual realization. To enrich the learning experience, we'll also be inviting guests from diverse functional backgrounds, such as QA, product, and security, to contribute to the MVP building process.

As we embark on this journey, we intentionally avoid preparing an agenda in advance. Instead, we agree on what we will tackle in the next session. This approach allows us to introduce various exercises and solution design techniques to Essam while engaging our audience in an interactive learning experience.

Throughout our sessions, we will touch on numerous topics, including idea assessment and comparison, use case understanding, business requirement formulation, threat modeling, test-driven development (TDD), serverless computing, coding, testing, and much more.

With a commitment of 48 hours, we are confident that, given proper planning, we can successfully build a complete MVP within this limited timeframe. By documenting our progress and sharing our experiences, we hope to demonstrate the power of collaboration and learning in the ever-evolving world of technology.

To ensure our work is easily accessible, we will make all materials related to our sessions available through the following channels:

Miro board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPjEXOcw=/ (opens new window)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQwnWUteLAeOsGAMGlgw-fPaRNHmki_Zh (opens new window)

Furthermore, I will be documenting the sessions and sharing my thoughts on the exercises used, allowing our audience to gain deeper insights into the process.

By offering our live sessions in Arabic, involving experts from various disciplines, and providing comprehensive documentation, we hope to bridge the gap in content availability and inspire others to embark on their own collaborative learning experiences.