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I found a dev coach to help me start coding again as a designer - Here is how and why!

I just had a ReactJS 1-1 coaching session with @nikwen_de, a friend I made in the @IndieHackers community.

He is helping me get back into coding again, after 3 years of being inactive.

Wondering why I want to start coding again as a designer?

Pair programming session with Jim and Niklas

Every-week I work with my co-founder @kanga_bru on our micro-SaaS product https://thinkoutloud.io/ for 8 hours in total.

We do 2x sessions of 4 hours. That's it.

We have a goal of launching a micro-SaaS by spending a small amount of time, without any huge growth goals.

He is the developer, and I am the designer.

We realized that designing only is not enough in terms of contribution to the product. We are a small team with a limited amount of time we can invest.

If I become able to contribute into the UI development we can move 3 times faster. I can implement my designs without having to go through him and he can just review my code and send me his design feedback.

This way he can focus more on the functionality-side of the code, and together we can focus on shipping faster and better as a team.

Finally being able to code again, will allow me to build more advanced prototypes with https://framer.com/ and we will be able to test and validate ideas even faster!

It's an investment that will pay off for sure.

Here is my biggest learning and advice to you

Coaching is one of the most powerful tools you can use to grow faster as a solo founder. I pay @AlexLlullTW every month to coach me on content creation and community development, cause I've no clue how to do marketing. It's something I started learning 10 months ago.

@GinoNL and @dafnihnd pay me to help them prototype and design their product.

This is my biggest take-away for you. Invest into learning and pay or help others to help you back.

Money transformed into knowledge is imho something that can never go wrong.

Your brain is your biggest asset. The more you invest into it the bigger return you will have! 🙂

  1. 2

    Be able to code AND design is definitely a game changer indeed, as a designer I took me 3 attempts across several years but I finally did it !
    I wish you the best in your learning 👍

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot man! Congrats and all the best!

  2. 2

    What's your best advice for finding a coach that fits your needs?

    I'm also learning to code, and I definitely feel like having a mentor is invaluable.

    1. 1

      Good question..

      I would say just meet people and when you find somebody that has the skills and you enjoy discussing with ask them to help you. That's what I did with Niklas and Alex (my coaches)

      1. 1

        Got it! I'll make sure to put more effort networking.

    2. 1

      happy to help, feel free to reach out :)

  3. 1

    How do one learn how to code ?

    1. 1

      By building stuff and following tutorials :) That's how I personally learned, and now I do private coaching lessons in order to learn a specific framework (reacts) fast without the pain of doing it on my own haha

  4. 1

    Really happy to help. Keep it up, Jim! You're doing great. 👍

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