Yes, I’ve been a negligent blogger… but let’s forget about that for now. I’m writing again and damn I’m excited.

A wee while back (in November to be precise) I talked about an initiative at 76design called 76labs. Since then it’s remained largely cloaked in mystery. I wish I could say it’s because we were secretly toiling away, building the web’s next big thing, but alas it’s been quiet because we had our busiest Spring ever and when you’re busy with client work that leaves little time for experimentation.

Well, that was then and this is now. It’s Summer time and while we’re still abnormally busy, 76labs has gained some new focus and a whack of momentum thanks to the efforts of a few motivated and bright individuals (the brightest of which is undoubtedly John Sobol) who are determined to bring some of our ideas to market.

I’m excitedly writing this entry because we’ve begun development on a new product which we plan to launch in the Fall, on a beta level at least. I wish I could go into more detail but at this point I’ve got to keep it under my hat. The thing is, it’s an incredibly simple solution to a really complex problem… and so I can’t exactly tell you what it is or else you’d go out and make the product and collect our millions. I’m kidding. We’re fully aware that as social media advocates we’re being a bit hypocritical in the anti-transparentness of our development, but really – if you knew how surprisingly simple this idea is you’d understand why we can’t share it quite yet.

All I can say is that it’s going to turn the music industry upside down. Big words, I know… I don’t expect you to believe me just because I typed that. Just be patient and we’ll show you what we mean.

Even though it’s strictly on the DL I do plan to blog the process as we go. After all, product development is new territory for us and comes with a whole new set of rules. While it is ultimately web-based and obviously requires a lot of the core skills we use on a daily basis, the move from service-for-hire to R&D is pretty substantial. I hope to offer a few observations and insights as we go. Without further ado…

We’re already midway through week 2 and just entering the architecture and wire-framing stage. So far, the process has been much like a typical web site project for us. However, the one difference I’ve found is the difficulty in nailing down the scope. By its nature, the sky’s the limit with this thing. Unfortunately, we can only invest a finite number of hours and in the Web2.0 spirit of development we really want to get a foundation built and release a basic version of the product done and in the hands of real users. That feedback will be invaluable and we hope that it will ultimately shape the development as we move forward.

Alright… gotta get back to looking for available domain names for this thing. As it goes in the online world, we’ll name it once we know the .com is available! Why do you think this company’s called 76design, anyways? 71 through 75design.com were taken, duh.