The Wish.

06/21/10 Kristin

Very soon, we’ll be launching our new app, Paprika. We’ve had the idea for Paprika floating around in our heads for a while. We even told you about it along the way in our five-part series:

In the spirit of the above mentioned series, we thought we’d add one more piece about the single moment we realized we needed Paprika.

Simply put, it all began with a wish. I think a lot of apps are born this way, or at least the ideas for them. Somewhere, someone thinks to themselves: “I wish there was a tool that let me do this more easily.” That person thinks about how much this app would positively affect their productivity, and how they could integrate it into their workflow. Research is done, and when it appears there’s nothing out there exactly like the conceptual application, the excitement begins because development is looming in the future… but let’s go back to the wish part.

In my opinion, there are two types of people: those who don’t realize they need something until they already have it, and those who create something because they realize they need it.

Personally, I’m the first type. I love it when an app is an extension of my thought process- but I’m not sure I would have figured out my need for it on my own. I work with the second type of people, though, and I’m starstruck when I watch them think, and follow the progress of their thoughts.

If you’re an app developer, wishes take on a whole new meaning. Although the connotation of the word implies that wishes are relatively unattainable (that’s why you’re wishing to begin with), developers have the power to make it happen. It’s a mindset I think more people should adopt. I can boil it down to this: nothing is impossible.

So this wish for Paprika came from dissatisfaction- failure to find a tool that was an extension of the way we already thought. We (and by we, I mean Paste- collectively) knew if we were unhappy, chances were others were unhappy, too. The dissatisfaction led to the wish, which led to the research, which led to the excitement, which led to the work, which brought us Paprika.

Now if we could just find a genie to grant us the other three wishes we don’t have time for…