Hi Martin welcome to WIP!
Great questions about which projects to focus your energy on.
In my experience some projects require you to keep pushing forward. They take up more energy than they provide. You're constantly trying to figure out which features to build, how to monetize, etc.
Then there are the other type of projects. These projects pull you into their own direction. It will be obvious what to work on next. Users will tell you which features they want, or what problems they are running into. Monetization is often, but not always, more obvious as well. As you'll be able start to see patterns emerge and you recognize the type of customer that get the most value of your product. And what they might be willing to pay for.
Keep experimenting until you find that second type of project.
The quickest way to find those, is to try a lot of different things. But for us bootstrappers, it's helpful to focus on B2B subscription-based software. As there are generally easier to monetize.
Makers perfect sense. I also like the manager example. I've never had a manager, but since I started hiring people I've become a better planner. I need to assign them tasks, so I need to think more strategically whereas if you're working just by yourself you can go weeks or even months doing busy work without really thinking about the bigger picture.
Hey Tim and welcome to WIP!
You seem to put a lot of effort into The MVP Sprint. I'm curious how you find the time while also building the actual product itself? Or do you consider it as a marketing channel for it as well?
I know many indie makers struggle marketing their product (opposed to building something), but "building in public" is become more and more common. I, and I'm sure many with me, am curious to more about how fruitful writing about your progress has been and if you've been able to quantify the ROI of it?
Thanks, Marc!
My initial motivation was twofold: (1) Build an audience that I can funnel into the product I'm building (as you said), and (2) Build lasting equity in something that I can take with me even if this idea fails.
A third benefit has been huge for me - building in public has given me external motivation to make progress every week. It's also forced me to articulate my thoughts and justify my decisions. I had to do this as a product manager when I had a boss, but you can easily get by without it as a solo founder.
I'll probably shift eventually to a 2-week sprint schedule. I can easily justify spending 25%+ of my time writing updates and promoting my content if it turns out to be a primary marketing channel.
A month into it, I have ~45k article reads, almost 500 subscribers, and about 50-60 waitlist signups for my product.
In terms of ROI - these are really just vanity metrics until I get paying users, so we'll see. I'm going to start building in a couple weeks and timebox an MVP to a month or less.
Makers perfect sense. I also like the manager example. I've never had a manager, but since I started hiring people I've become a better planner. I need to assign them tasks, so I need to think more strategically whereas if you're working just by yourself you can go weeks or even months doing busy work without really thinking about the bigger picture.
Yes, I definitely want to add search. Just haven't gotten around to it yet. But as the community matures, it does indeed become a more valuable feature.
What kind of general posts would you want to post? You can do it already by the way if you want. But indeed they are still framed as questions and answers in most places, whereas they could just be general discussions.
Hey Damon, I know you've been a member for a while now but welcome anyway! 😁
Congrats on your daughter's second birthday. Those are the milestones in life that really count. You guys look adorable haha. Hope you were able to celebrate a bit despite all the covid restrictions.
See you around on WIP!
Like others have pointed out, it's worth considering if you need code at all. At least to get started.
If it does require coding you should ask yourself it's the right idea for you. Play to your strengths and all that.
Good questions, indeed.
YASS!