During my years as a hobby and professional software developer, I have failed to live up to this "mantra" too many times to count. But that also means that I have seen the other side, the relief when you finally get it right!
I don't want to write a huge post about what to do or when to do it, I just want this to serve as a reminder for you. There are tons of Indiehackers out there right now, with a dream or idea too huge to execute. I had one myself a while back, but I simplified and narrowed down and that's how my current side-project Wiseer started.
The only way I were able to get it off the ground was to sit down and really think about what features were needed, it's too easy to get stuck in a mindset that's years ahead of where you are now, and although it can be positive and help with motivation I have found that most times it's not very good for the product.
So I sat down...
I removed feature after feature, some of them had nested itself deep into my mind. So to make it feel easier for me I added them to a "future backlog" column in Trello, in case I wanted to revisit them in the future. It was hard! But hooray! When I was done I felt more motivated than ever, I finally had a realistic goal to work towards!
I encourage you to do the same, find your MVP (Minimum Viable Product)! 😎
Oh, and I haven't looked at that Trello column since. 🙈
and again...
It doesn't stop there. Overengineering is something I am very good at. Although harder to spot, it's the same snake pit as before. You have to go at it, again and again. Keep finding your product's focus, remove unused or bad features and dare to make changes!
I recently removed one of four features from my service, together with a full rename of the most essential resources in an attempt to make the service simpler. It was rather hard to do and took some time, and at times I even felt like I was doing something wrong.. But goodness! Now the service feels so much more focused. To the benefit of both my backlog, mind and user experience. 🎉
I recommend you plan a full grooming of your backlog and look through what you can remove or improve!
I am personally going to try to work it into my regular development cycle, to try to keep myself and my projects as focused as possible.
Stay safe!
A good way to put it -- getting years ahead of yourself -- and advice I can certainly use. Wiseer sounds like a good idea, and the site looks nice. Are you using a cloud service for the sentiment analysis? Do you expect that to be your biggest expense?
I'm happy some of it resonated with you :)
Thank you! Yes I currently am using a combination of APIs, and even though the cost isn't high is not unlikely it could be my biggest expense.
But I would like to replace the APIs with in-house software, I have a few friends who might be able to help with that :)
The reason I haven't done it yet is because it would simply be to much work for one person to do everything needed for the site.
It makes perfect sense to get it working first and then decide which parts you want to build!
Agreed! It's also part of the "simplifying and narrowing down" mantra :p
What are you working on?
Working on finding an idea that's small enough for me to build quickly and that will generate a few bucks from the start. I've never chased money, so this will be a test of focus: not to get caught up in the purpose or meaning or perfection of the thing, but just to get it done and get people to pay for it. I'm going to an IH meetup in a couple of days and hoping to have at least one good candidate idea by then.
Awesome! I hope your find something that gets you excited!