“How Is unFIX Doing?”
Author: Jurgen Appelo
Every week, people ask me, "What about unFIX? How is it doing?" The answer, of course, depends on how you measure it.
At the recent unFIXcon event in Berlin, I was amazed to see people traveling from all over Europe and beyond to report on their experiences with the pattern library or learn more about it. Every week, our team gets questions from people interested in presentations, in-person workshops, online learning, and other approaches to get started with unFIX. When I speak at Agile events, I am amazed to see how many participants are already familiar with the model and, in some cases, are actively experimenting with it.
When measured in terms of awareness and buzz, the unFIX model is doing quite well.
On the other hand, when it comes to growing a sustainable business, we're not there yet. Our income from memberships and partnerships has doubled in the past year, but more is needed to pay for all the efforts of our hard-working team members. In addition, our friends and partners have ongoing experiments with unFIX events, a webshop, an app, courseware, e-learning, local representation, and more, but it's too early to call any of these efforts a runaway success. Most of that work doesn't even pay for all the bills!
The unFIX Company still has much work to do when measured in terms of revenue and impact.
A quick Google search reveals that the average time to profitability and business success is three to seven years (according to some) or even four to ten years (according to others). I must admit, I had hoped (and maybe expected) that we would already have a company with good revenue and healthy profits by now. It appears I was wrong. If there's one thing that people can rightly blame me for, it is unreasonable optimism. I plead guilty—mea culpa.
Anyway, we need to adjust our expectations.
Together with our team, I am preparing a slightly different strategy for The unFIX Company in 2024. Our commitment to nurturing the growing interest in unFIX remains unchanged, and we're exploring better avenues to benefit all stakeholders, including our team members, friends and business partners, and the unFIX community.
I will keep you all updated on the changes.
Stay tuned!
