How many projects/ideas do you have on the go at once?
I've unexpectedly started my journey as an indie hacker this week after receiving a redundancy payout from work. I had 4 project ideas in my head when I finished up at the old job on Friday, then inspiration hit over the weekend and I came up with 2 more ideas. This week I've come up with another project idea.
I guess this is better than not having anything to work on, but is this normal? Do other people have a half dozen or more ideas fighting for mindshare in their head at once. Or heaven forbid - do other indie hackers actually work on half a dozen ideas at once?
I think it's completely normal and most other people that I've met who are interested in working on side-projects or want to build their own business have a number of ideas at the same time. The hard part is usually having the discipline to focus on one and get it off the ground or explore the various forms it will take.
Sometimes one idea keeps coming back to you and then you know that you are genuinely interested in it.
You have to think about which criteria you want to use to evaluate which one you should spend time on. I suggest you use what excites you the most, what you have special knowledge in, and then the one that you analytically think can gain the most traction then work on validating it.
I think this is a very good way to measure whether it's worth taking a run an idea
I go by the rhetoric, that the best idea is the one you can't talk yourself out of. Same general concept.
This makes me think that maybe my 3 month deadline (when my savings will run out) is perhaps a good thing - I'm being forced to evaluate which of my ideas has the most potential and take it to market quickly, rather than wasting 12 months in my cave building something no one else wants.
Absolutely! Though bare in mind that the path isn't usually direct, and it takes time for things to simmer and you return to ideas that you've already tested but they end up being slightly different, so don't discount something if it doesn't work immediately.
Think of it as a search in the idea space and sometimes you get caught in local maxima and need to reset and approach the hill climbing exercise from a different direction. Good luck with it, would love to know what the ideas you are considering are.
I like the analogy of local maxima. And I'll be sharing at least some of my ideas on IH in the coming weeks to get feedback / assess viability.
I was like this for a few years but never seemed to get anywhere past the first steps of making the proof of concept - or a few sales and things would peter out.
In 2017 I set my first new years resolution:
In order to pull that off, I had to define what DONE looks like for each project which has since evolved into defining when to evaluate if a project was a success or a failure.
As an immediate response to my new rule, I became much more selective about the projects I took on. Most ideas that came my way received a 'No', and the promising projects received a day or two of consideration before their 'No'.
The result has been great. I started https://lilypadresumes.com and haven't taken on any other project since. I've been able to grow it into a small writing agency with a few writers, and a TON of business assets. It's my most successful side project to date, and it'll continue to be my only project for the remainder of 2018.
Come 2019, I'll evaluate for success/failure and go from there!
Two at a time: The first is my 9 to 5 job that pays the bills and keeps the family happy. The second is my side project that keeps me happy. I never want to take on more than this, otherwise I'm not committing to something for the long term and will never finish. As a solo developer it's important for me to be able to focus on one task and do it right rather than have multiple half-complete projects that don't go anywhere. Perhaps one day I'll have more people working with me so I can spread the ideas around a little bit but that's down the road.
Yes.
And its kind of a curse sometimes...
I've at least 50 ideas on my main list, 4 on the shortlist (which Id like to do within this year) and currently working on 2 in parallel. Two businesses are running steady on maintenance mode while another dozend are "dead / parked"...
I guess I am not alone here with my "addiction" ;-)
P.S. Just two thoughts for you:
Just pick the one which your gut likes the most (or run a pro/con meatgrinder checklist).
Do the least ammount of steps which are absolutely necessary to sell. Then sell.
Absolutely! It's actually why we built Clay Base (https://www.base.run) so you can build out products quickly without having to write repetitive code and set up your environment to try out various ideas.
Thanks for sharing the link to your project. I've been looking for an affordable replacement for Parse.com since it was shuttered by Facebook.
50! I guess I don't have it as bad as other people then. :-) Do you use a spreadsheet or other project management software to keep track of all these projects, or do you just keep them all in your head?
I have a big Excel sheet with some additional parameters and comments + a few folders for the shortlisted ones
Trello boards for the current ones...
I usually have about four. One main one that actually gets worked on (having a co-founder to keep accountable has been a huge help here) and one side one that I try to work on a couple hours a week here and there plus one that I actively set aside Sunday for and one or two others that just keep niggling away at me to do them but there is zero time left to allocate and they are not high enough priority to get to yet.
I have no problems finding ideas, I think it difficult to execute said idea really well without running out of steam.
I think I know my personal issue though; I need a designer co-founder. It's very hard be a single person doing everything to push from idea to delivery.
ask yourself: "how many side projects have I completed and launched in my life?"
if the answer is 0. there is no way you can justify working on more than one thing. you will still have 0 things completed in a years time.
its all about finishing things. everyone loses steam 80% of the way through. and the last 20% is the hardest and goes on forever.
Only when you consistently start flipping side projects can you be arrogant enough to think you can do more than one thing at one time.
My rules:
pretty accurate
I run a couple at once. One is making me the most money, the others are early stage. Some will be a bust, others ~might~ will turn into profitable businesses.
Building (not just starting) a profitable project/business is what I like to do, and having multiple keeps it interesting for me since each one needs different thinking in audience, development, design and marketing.
I prefer to have couple of smaller ventures (5-20k) instead of one big one, but this all boils down to preference.
Not counting my job search, I have one or two ongoing programming projects, usually to keep me busy coding and keeping my skills sharp. The other is more hands-on hobby, designing a product I hope I can find interested people to buy.