Do you ever feel like as soon as you finish developing a MVP it becomes the worst idea you ever heard of?
Over the last three months I've developed 2 projects to a MVP stage. When it's time for me to go and market the ideas, I feel this overwhelming sense of "this is so dumb, why did you even make this? You could of solved this problem by easily doing xyz."
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Self-doubt is one of the hardest things to overcome in life, much less development. It's difficult to sustain the level of enthusiasm required when you've been the only one that believes in what you're doing so far. Of course, all that changes once you a bring a product to market. In fact, the entire game changes at that point.....oftentimes, for the better; sometimes, for the worse.
Don't let self-doubt get the best of you. It is always better to try and fail, than to fail and try. No regrets and know that you're not alone. Every entrepreneur and every developer has walked in those shoes.
Keep believing in yourself and keep grinding. 👍
yeah I agree, that what I felt after I presented my product https://simpleboard.io to the company I'm working on.
but soon after I realized that my idea is worth the efforts and people really liked it.
Thanks! I notice because it is a common thread for my projects it must just be a mental blocker. I appreciate the encouragement.
No problem!
It’s normal. I found it helpful to write down all the reasons you are going to do it the beginning so you can back reflect
Great advice, thank you!
I always console myself that there are more absurd product ideas out there that are profitable.
Honestly for many products out there I'm surprised that people pay for it.
Many products here on IH even.
But that's just a symptom of me not being the target market of said products.
Like my own product, Zlappo, it does basically what TweetDeck does, and TweetDeck is free. But people still pay for it, even when they're aware of free alternatives, luckily for me.
What gives?
Just put it out there and see what happens. The MVP is already built anyway, it's a sunk cost, you have nothing much to lose at this point.
Thank you so much! I think the reminder that people will buy things that gives them value instead of something I percieve as value really lifted my spirits. Thank you for sharing your own story as well.
Since you already finished the MVP's, i would start seeing if people would actually want to use it. There are plenty of ideas that you think might work but no one likes and vice versa. the only way to know is to let the market decide.
Focus your energy on those two products and see if they get traction before giving up and starting another one, it might just be in you head. In the future, try validating your idea before you build it, that will solve you from this feeling down the line .
Wishing you the best and success, you'll figure it out.
Thank you! I will take that advice. Just taking these two things to the next level and seeing if what I can make of them.
What did you do before building the MVP? How about filling in the one-page business canvas before you start work? Then you can go back to the canvas to remind yourself where the product’s value is (or decide it has no value before starting building).
I actually didn't know about the business canvas. I will Google it and use it going forward. Thank you!
Did you talk to any (potential) customers about these MVPs?
The product is somewhat B2C2B. It helps generate videos for YouTube automatically. Since I just completed the generator, I guess this would be the validation stage besides the fact that videos of this type are already super popular.
What was the original “impulse” to build that MVP? Was it solving some existing problem or was it an idea at first?
The first product was a library developed to solve a problem. It was in Google apps script ( a niche) and it solved a painful problem ( there is no good way of being able to launch error handling for scripts in apps script, I built a library that will graph out the running functions and the data passed to them). Its also fantastically easy to implement.
The second was seeing a process that was already working for someone else ( validation) and noticing the process could be automated. ( I generate a specific type of video automatically in code).
Its just after I completed both things I had this overwhelming feeling of I just wasted my time.
I guess it's because you're overwhelmed with the next steps which is bringing your product to market.
Try to find at least one person to try your product.
Solid practical advice! Thank you!
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Yeah I totally understand. Personally, this play for me was a "I see other people in this space having success so it must be product validation ". Almost like Carrd being created even though there is Squarespace. I have had some people I know take a look at it and they definitely said the quality improved and it was good. But, then there is the whole mom test you know?
Actually it isn't wrong to say that having successful competitors is product validation -- it is. But your circumstances and skills and knowledge and connections and resources may differ greatly from those of your competitors. Plus you can copy the product idea and features, but one thing you can't copy is the customer acquisition strategy.
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.
Acting on this advice today! Im shipping both things and seeing what bites. Thank you!!! Thanks for the reminder that people pay for anything thst gives them value. Honestly, that advice helps put things in perspective.