The CoachAccountable Blog

I love using CoachAccountable for managing my coaching relationships.  But I have an unfair advantage in understanding why: I have access to coaching relationships in the system that are well under way.  I see it containing data that reveals trends, hosting a comprehensive history of notes, a overall serving as a running illustration of progress.

CoachAccountable looks good as a repository of records and progress because of this, in a way that blank slate graphics stating “Click here to add your first…” simply can’t.

Today that changes.  Coaches who sign up for an account now have their account pre-loaded with data from a 4-month long running coaching relationship, giving them a real sense of how the system serves to track and document progress over time well before they otherwise could with their own clients.

» Continue reading “A Proper Look at a Coaching Relationship for New Users: the Demo Client”

After 5 months of development and a nearly 3-year hiatus, CoachAccountable is now relaunched in its second incarnation: a near complete remix and rethinking of the original.  As I mentioned earlier version 1 really didn’t deliver in terms of making coaching relationships more effective, but 2.0 has really shone at the task during its incubation with real coaching relationships.

There’s much more to say about the path thus far, but for now I’ll let the software speak for itself.

www.coachaccountable.com

In 60 seconds you can set yourself up with a free 30-day, no credit card required.  Give it a whirl.

Development on CoachAccountable 2.0 has been treat these last 5 months.  These last few weeks the system has seen a lot of polish as everything gets ready for public presentation.  Here are a few screenshots that give a sense for how things are coming together.

Client actions.  Being able to set reminders via text is a serious with for timely follow through.

» Continue reading “CoachAccountable 2.0: A Sneak Peak”

As I mentioned earlier, I was looking forward to sharing some of the feedback of the CoachAccountable 2.0 beta testers.  Last time around (meaning CA1.0), we were eager to give beta tester accounts to just about anyone who expressed the slightest interest.  Participation among the recipients was scattered to say the least, as stickiness and follow-through with usage and feedback were scarce.

This time around I only invited a select few, people whom I knew from at least a few conversations and who showed above-average interest the potential of coaching software.  This was quite deliberate to minimize distraction from the real task at hand: getting the software ready for a public launch, which is of course where the real feedback comes.

Alas, will such a small sample size any noise on the signal becomes disproportionately large.  In this case the signal I’m after is the kind of feedback that can only arise from in-depth use, and it’s been greatly impeded by busy schedules among my small group (indeed, it’s a tall order to ask any coach to explore adopting a whole new set of tools, especially with things still-in-flux).

So I don’t have perspectives and insights from others about applying CoachAccountable to coaching relationships for an extended period of time.  I do, however, have a few first impressions to share:

I do plan on using it and am very excited about the program. I absolutely love it and it’s capabilities! :-)

And

Love the metrics.  This is a really nice way to track the progress of my coachees.

And then my favorite:

Holy FUCK this is beautiful.   You MUST send an evaluation invite to …  . She’s going to be VERY interested in this, I guarantee.

So there are some good things being seen in the eyes of people who are not me.

Now there is but to get the software out the door and let the whole interested world give it a crack.  I’ve been doing a bit of world travel lately, but soon I’ll be settled in Cusco and with that bit of normalcy progress will resume.  Expect a launch by the end of August, and drop me a line if you’d like to be notified of when you can sign up for your own account.

I’m happy to announce that today the new version of CoachAccountable moves from beyond the confines of me and my coachees, and into the hands of others.  The software has been proving itself well in practice (indeed, the aforementioned condition that I love it has been met), and it is polished and complete now to the point where I’m eager to know how it fares to help the coaching done by other coaches.

» Continue reading “CoachAccountable 2.0 Beta is Ready and Launched”

A thought popped into my head earlier today.

It wasn’t my marketing brain that was engaged at the time, though you’d swear it was.  The thought was, quite simply, “Wow, how did I ever do coaching before CoachAccountable?”

Let me explain just a little, lest this sound like a vapid and shameless pandering of my baby.

» Continue reading “A Very Good Sign in a Very Spontaneous Thought”

As I’ve alluded to in recent updates, the development of CoachAccountable 2.0 is being done with the benefit of live coaching relationships taking full advantage of the system.  This allows for practical use that really guides the process and ensures it remains on the right track.  These relationships are with a few friends who have graciously volunteered to be the guinea pigs for CoachAccountable 2.0.

I’d like to now introduce one of them, Tim.

Tim is the owner of BTDenver, a one-man shop that provides computer maintenance, setup, and support services for small businesses.  To put it in readily familiar terms: he’s essentially in the same business as the Best Buy Geek Squad.  But he’ll tell you there’s a real and important difference between a deeply savvy specialist (like he is) and commodity-grade technician proffered up by large service shops like the Geek Squad (in his words, “there are a lot of talented members working there, but the average one working on your problem is basically a high schooler following a flowchart”).

» Continue reading “Meet Tim”

While looking through the visitor stats the other day I noticed that coachaccountable.com has gotten 3 hits for the search phrase “what’s up with coachaccountable?”. For me that’s a fascinating  glimpse into the zeitgeist of the internet: there’s a small sliver of folks who saw our website, presumably thought what we were up to was worthwhile and on the right track, and accordingly wondered why things should be all shut down.

Something that I think is worth sharing to address that curiosity is the story of what happened when we used the polished version of CoachAccountable 1.0 for ourselves.

» Continue reading “What Happened with CoachAccountable 1.0”

Just one day before I move out to commence World Tour with my wife, I have the major overhaul of CoachAccountable at a place complete enough to test out in the field with my coachees.  It’s an exciting day, and I’m delighted to have this large chunk of work done before we embark on the more vagabond lifestyle.

“Alpha” means that it is in a stage that is still too rough and untested for more broad consumption, it will still be a little while before I’m ready to open the new version up to a broader audience.  I will do so after some time of using and refining with my coachees.

I really like it in it’s current state.  I’ll know it’s ready for prime time and suitable to show off once I love it.

I am a hacker.  (“Hacker” in the sense of programmers who really love to create things in code, NOT people trying to break into the CIA)   It is said in hacker circles (specifically in several essays by Paul Graham) that the best software is that which hackers write to scratch their own itch.   Why is that?  Because they are their own users.  It is the rare and magical combination in software development of (1) knowing exactly what is needed and (2) being able to create it.  If anything is cumbersome or annoying, they can fix it.  If a little shortcut is an obvious time saver, they can put it in.

» Continue reading “Building Systems to Scratch Your Own Itch”