I Thought The Hardest Part Was Building The Product - I Was Wrong
When first started building, I obsessed over the product: The right features, The UX flows, Making sure it worked just right.
I thought: “Once we ship this… we’re off to the races.”
Spoiler: we shipped. And the race didn’t start.
Instead, I ran into five brutal, unexpected walls:
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You don’t just build the product. You become the product’s explainer-in-chief.
No one understands your tool the way you do.
Which means no landing page, demo, or onboarding flow explains it better than you, yet.
So you keep showing up, pitching, refining. Over and over again. -
People don’t adopt tools. They adopt habits.
Even when you solve a real problem, people won’t change unless the pain of staying the same is unbearable.
You’re not just competing with other tools, you’re competing with inertia. -
Your biggest challenge isn’t growth. It’s trust.
Users won’t tell you this, but they’re skeptical.
They’ve tried other apps. Nothing stuck.
Why should yours be any different?
And deep down, you're wondering the same. -
You need to sell before the product feels "done."
Perfection is a trap.
You’ll never feel ready. But users don’t care about polish, they care about relief.
If your product gives them even 10% relief, they’ll forgive the rough edges. -
The real game starts after product-market fit.
It’s not a finish line, it’s just a new level of problems.
Support issues. Scaling pains. Infrastructure chaos.
Suddenly, your biggest bottleneck isn’t demand, it’s internal clarity.
I wish someone told me this earlier.
That building a great product is the bare minimum.
That surviving the emotional whiplash is the real work.
But if you're in the middle of this storm, hang on.
You’re not alone. You’re just early.
Now I’m building DearFlow – a personal AI assistant that works proactively for busy professionals. It handles the kind of tasks a human assistant would but without the cost or coordination overhead.
And this time, I’m building with these lessons burned into my brain.
It’s going well so far, and I really hope we can turn it into something meaningful - something that truly gives people time back, without burning them out in the process.
Resonates a lot. One thing I didn’t expect was how tedious repetitive tasks like bulk watermarking can be when preparing for launches — consistency becomes this surprisingly large pain point.
If you’ve ever automated parts of that (logo placement, size normalization, batch processing), what tools or systems did you find manageable? For us, handling ~1,000 high-res photos in one go without manual tweaking is game-changing.
Good advice, I'll follow it
thanks for the advice, ill keep all this in mind
Hi Rachel! I like your product. Would you be interested in a pitch deck for your company to pitch to investors?
Hey! Thanks for sharing! I totally agree with you and share some of your feelings. One thing’s for sure, if you’re in this storm, it means your product’s got people hooked, and that’s all I wish for you! Also, I really love the design of your landing page and project!
Wow Rachel… your post couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m just a few days away from launching the BETA version of an app I’ve been developing — born out of the same deep frustration many of us feel about engagement on social media and websites.
I run a sailing tour business in Mexico, mainly for tourists. And even with stunning photos, vibrant videos, and carefully crafted posts… if I don’t pay for ads, no one sees anything. My content gets buried by the algorithm.
I needed a solution — a way to drive organic, sincere, and engaging traffic without constantly having to pay to be visible. I wanted something that wouldn’t make us so dependent on ads to generate attention on our platforms.
That’s where the idea for my app came from.
It’s a tool designed to spark active, playful engagement — almost like a game — directly on our own platforms, without relying on Instagram, Youtube, Linked In, Google or Facebook's rules.
I really believe I’m hitting a pain point here. And I’ve poured everything into this project.
11 months of work — sometimes 12, even 15 hours a day.
I’d fall asleep with an idea and test it first thing in the morning.
I wanted everything to be perfect… and I’ve doubted myself a thousand times.
So yes, I’m scared it might not take off.
But your post reminded me that I’m not alone, and this emotional rollercoaster is part of the process. Thank you so much for sharing something so real and timely 💛
Great post, thanks Rachel. Couldn't agree more. My product solves a really painful problem (so I'm lucky there I guess!) but my issue isn't getting users over inertia, it's getting my product in front of users in the first place. What I wouldn't give to have a growth hacker on my team right now!
Thanks for this, Rachel — this one hit me in the gut (in a good way). I’m in the process of partnering with developers to build a product for youth sports photographers — a niche I know inside and out. And already, I’m seeing how tough it is to explain the value of something that lives deep in the day-to-day needs of a very specific group.
One thing I’ve learned: when people say they’re “building for photographers,” what they often mean is “I haven’t really asked what kind of photographer.” Every working photographer is a niche producer — weddings, real estate, portraits, sports — each with their own workflows and pain points. Most generically built photo tools only solve half the problem.
In an era where niche templates are easier to produce and customize than ever, it might be time for more devs to lean into specific markets. But that starts with listening — not assuming.
One other point I learned early: By focusing on a niche industry I could narrowly and efficiently cast my marketing efforts into a small pool. It was much more effective than the photographer wo says "I'll shoot anything" and thereby has to cast a wide, less effective net into an already oversaturated pool. Economy of scale works both ways.
Rooting for DearFlow. The fact you’re building with these lessons already internalized tells me you’re on the right track. Keep going — we’re all just early.
Thanks for sharing this! We had a similar arc: launched, waited for the race to start… and it didn’t. Turns out when your product is asking people to change their behaviour (in our case, how they relate to movement), you’re not just selling a tool - you’re challenging their identity, routines, and past failures. That’s a whole different game and it requires much more care and a lot of trust building.
Facts, where do you get your leads from?