Ask IH: How do you stay motivated when bootstrapping a new product?
Hey Indie Hackers!
I've been playing around with an idea on and off for the last year or so (mostly to learn new technology), and I'm just now starting to get serious about wanting to pursue starting a business around what I've learned in the last year. I'm a programmer who loves building new products and ideas; but when things get more serious (i.e building a business vs. just for fun learning) and demanding I begin to lose motivation and things sort of fall apart.
After a few weeks of building a real MVP, I'm 50-60% of the way to actually shipping something, but I'm now struggling to stay motivated and push things over the finish line.
For some context: I have a fairly demanding full-time job that I love, and I intend to get things off the ground while I'm still employed -- so I only have nights and weekends available to make things happen.
I feel like part of my problem is that I don't have much structure, planning, or time management setup. Are there any tools, services, techniques, or time management practices that help you stay focused when trying to get your product off the ground?
Are there any specific things you do, or strategies you employ to stay motivated?
Any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated!
I have a poster on my wall with a long bar and a sum on top of it that I have to reach to quit my day job. When I'm doing a new product I just draw a new dashed line according the expected monthly revenue. When it's starting to bring money back and grow I fill the gap. And so on, and so on.
Hi,
I faced the same problem and probably I can help... but now just tell us how long you've been building your MVP? It's a key point.
I started planning the MVP about two months ago, and actually started building it (writing code) three weeks ago. I've been spending 3-4 nights on it for the last three weeks.
Have you ever got any feedback for this period of time? From anybody?
If not you are probably in the same trap as I was.
I started many, many projects and eventually came to the same situation - no motivation to keep working.
It lasted until one day I talked to a very smart person (and paid pretty much for that conversation - just because I wanted to figure out what was wrong with me). That person told me about "the emotional scale" (I'm probably wrong about the name) which describes the stages of emotional state during the period when a person works on a project:
If you're stuck on stage 1 or 2 for too long (like 2 months is probably too long, in my case it was 4 month or longer) it's very difficult to overcome stage 3.
So the trick is to get to stage 3 as soon as possible. I think the appropriate time would be 1-2 (max 3) weeks. And you need to get a feedback as soon as possible. It will motivate you further. Then, when you will have users you need to save all the "thanks", feedbacks, testimonials, anything that would keep you in stage 4 and 5.
That's it pretty much.
As for your current project, I don't know if it's possible to overcome your stage 3. Maybe not, if so, don't despair, think about something else and try not to repeat the same mistake.
Let me know if you still have questions.
Talk to a psychiatrist. Seriously. There are a lot of medications that can help with motivation.