How do you know if you are working on the right things?
The internet is a distraction. Indie hacking can be lonely. There is always so much to learn. It's easy to be full of self doubt. And juggling feels like a constant.
When you're building something:
- how do you know you are building the right thing (and not falling into a deep dark hole)?
- and when do you know you are focused on the right task at the right time?
You should have a customer focused metric to track.
How much revenue?
If no revenue, how engaged are the users?
How many users?
How is the landing page conversation?
....
You should always focus on users side of things not products.
Convert traffic to registered emails before building anything.
Not to sound like a broken record, but if you follow your passion then you are likely going in the right direction. You have to dig deep to overcome self-doubt, the naysayers and all of the distractions. Rejection and uncertainty are hard as hell to take, over and over again. Likewise, it’s difficult to muster enthusiasm when you barely have the energy left to care. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. The difficulty gets multiplied once you add creativity to the mix. There is also nothing in life as worthwhile as accomplishing a goal, hitting a benchmark, shipping. 🙃
I respectfully disagree with some elements of the "Follow your passion" sentiment. While you should certainly pursue things you are passionate about — growing your skills and expertise in those areas — I think it is a trap to think that product development should be about your personal passions.
I think a lot of Indie Hackers believe that if they can solve their own problem, then surely millions of other people must have the same problem and would pay for the same solution you've come up with for yourself.
This is a very unwise way to pick a direction for product development. Firstly, if it's a big enough problem that tons of people feel the same way about it that you do, it's likely to be a very saturated market to get into.
Secondly, starting by thinking about your needs first is almost always going to lead you down the path of making something nobody but you wants and cause you to spend your whole entrepreneurial career "pivoting."
If you're going to apply the "Follow your passion" philosophy, then I highly recommend taking that to mean immersing yourself in the communities that are based around the things you are passionate about. Study those communities inside and out. Participate in them and watch them like a fly on the wall.
Those communities will be filled with a lot of people with a lot of problems that your passion-driven expertise will help you solve.
Then, you are creating something based on research and data, and not your emotions and speculations.
You will be building up trust with a community you ultimately plan to sell to, learning what their problems are, AND learning the words they use to talk about their problems so that you can market to them effectively. You'll learn what they are and are not willing to spend money on.
Doesn't that seem like it's going to be a more fruitful use of your time than sinking hundreds of hours into solving a problem that maybe no one has but you?
I was speaking more to the 'follow your passions in life', rather than any specific problem that you're passionate about solving. So I completely agree that product development should not be about a personal passion. But, I do think one needs to be passionate about product development to fully pursue it. Why else bother with it? If it doesn't speak to you or tap the fire inside, you owe it to yourself to find out what does and go down that path.
Definitely :)
Although, I have also found that sometimes gaining success in something can make you more passionate about it.
Sure thing! It's really good extrinsic motivation and a bit of affirmation. Even the most jaded of us tend to respond to that! 🙃