Let me roast your product idea
Are you an Indie Hacker and are you currently working on a product, or do you have an idea for one? Then you most likely know how hard it is to get honest feedback on your product idea.
I am a software engineer and I love creating new products. However, I have spent way too much time on (side) projects that eventually didn't go anywhere. If only someone would've given honest feedback on these product ideas early on, maybe in some cases I could've shifted to a new strategy early enough to make the products work. In other cases it could've also saved me a lot of hassle, time and money.
For this reason I've launched bootloop.io. You can leave some details, and I will:
1. take time to thoroughly go through and test your idea
2. give feedback on multiple aspects, such as business and tech
3. not hold back on criticizing your idea
Getting feedback is scary. I understand that completely. Don't worry, I will not just roast the not-so-good parts, but also toast the awesome parts of your product idea.
It's completely free by the way. My goal is to get to know Indie Hackers a bit better and to start conversations.
Edit: within 24 hours of launching Bootloop.io, more than 50 people have signed up to have their product ideas roasted. It’s amazing that so many people want to share what they’re working on, even if that means that their ideas might get roasted.
For now I'll have to close the registration, so there's time to thoroughly go through each and every idea, while also preparing to take Bootloop.io to the next level. To be continued...
Hi Ruud,
I want to change your idea. You can't stop people from launching bad ideas - I've tried in the past and they just won't hear you. However your "roasting" idea could be extremely valuable to companies like Uclusion. Currently services like G2 and Capterra rely solely on customer reviews. For startups like us that presents quite a bootstrap problem.
How about you start a product review channel for software engineering tools?
The beauty of this is that currently there really is no where to go to get software engineers in depth opinions of software tools. See https://www.g2.com/products/jira/reviews and it pops up with a 4 star review from an agile coach or lower down there is a software engineer giving 4 1/2 stars in a review that says, "What I disliked about jira is that even if it provides so many features, it is expensive to use, maintain, & also, I didn't get much help from the jira service desk,which was requested while setting up." - how is that 4 1/2 stars then!!
The key part of this is the roast. A professional reviewer going to usually do a better job than a small collection of amateurs. For one thing when an amateur reviews software he likely hasn't even seen most of the competition. And I'm definitely not talking about a "review" like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiOxFQUhFzo which is just an advertisement. Let us have it - as long as the same level of scrutiny is applied to everyone.
Anyway feel free to roast my modification suggestion to bootloop.io.
Hi Disrael,
Thank you for your comment and your suggestion, I like that you turned it around! I'll take your invitation to roast the suggestion a bit.
First to clarify; my goal isn't to stop people from launching bad ideas. Launching a bad idea is much better than never publishing a good idea. My goal is to start a conversation with Indie Hackers that are in the process of starting a business. My hope is that this conversation will push some ideas in the right direction and that it will help product owners to open up about their ideas early on.
You are completely right that current product review systems and channels as we know them are fundamentally broken, and I could probably write a dissertation about how they are abused by both companies and their customers alike. The difference between regular product reviews and what I'm trying to do with Bootloop.io, is that regular reviews target other customers, while my "roasts" target product owners instead. That doesn't mean that this couldn't be valuable information for end-customers (and it could definitely be entertaining sometimes), but probably not in the form it is now.
Let me know if you'd like me to roast Uclusion. It won't be a public roast for now, but maybe it can still be of value
Ruud
Of course roast away but what stops us from publishing a blog - here's what Ruud said and here's how we fixed things in response?
Our marketing was just roasted and we fixed the store front the same day https://www.indiehackers.com/post/share-your-frustrations-about-funnels-24eb5e86c8
I'm game. Filled out the form. Have fun!
I've received your message and will get back to you very soon. Thanks for filling out the form!
@ruudniew did what he promised and delivered an eye-opening roast. It was in 3 video parts, the first was an intro, the second a "toast", followed by the "roast".
I had to provide a lot of explanation in the submission form, as I only have a rough landing page and no product at all yet. It's still very early. I wanted feedback on the idea and the landing page itself.
I was very pleased with his analysis of the strengths and weaknesses, and I'll definitely be using those to improve my next version of the landing page. As well, great advice to narrow down my product's potential audience. I have potentially tens of millions of professional customers, but then my tool is diluted as a generalist tool. Narrowing it down can provide me with some traction and uniqueness in the marketplace.
Thank you @ruudinew for the time you took to roast my idea!
Hi Ruud! Great idea.
Hi Ruud,
Thanks for your generous contribution. I'm on the verge of launching ScreenplaySubs, a Netflix browser extension that converts subtitles into screenplays.
Here is a rough demo video
This idea was born to 'scratch my own itch' as a screenwriter/filmmaker myself to easily analyze and study movie/tv screenplays.
I'm anxious because this is a new and super niche idea, meaning I have to figure out a lot of things including pricing, how to market this product, and UI/UX
Other indiehackers can also chime in!
Love this idea Ruud! I come across bad UX/UI EVERYWHERE - from street repairs to business operations to software to...I get so baffled why whomever created/started/etc. the "thing" didn't take a step back and ask how their customers will "ACTUALLY" use their thing they created. Even something as small and simple as a slot for envelopes at an ATM made FARRRR too small. If you're looking for anyone else to provide "user" feedback on concepts by all means, I'd love to help.
Hey Ruud - would love any / all feedback.
Filled two forms (I hope thats okay) for https://cyrcl.app and https://theTalk.at
Thanks for doing this! :)
First I wanna thank you for using your time to help the community.
I just the idea I'm currently working right now on your website. Looking forward for the feedback!
More criticism is always helpful - appreciate the offer @ruudniew!
Form filled in, spiced up and ready to get roasted! Cat Linker
Filled out the form for thecodinginterview.com. I'm new to this community so I expect to be roasted heavily!
Hi @ruudniew,
Just filled the form for Keepsy.app. Curious to see what opinions you have.
Thanks for the roast!
I think I need this as well. Submitted. :D.
Love it just filled out, thanks! (Building an SEO SaaS, happy to offer some free SEO advice in exchange!)
Nobody is afraid of sharing their business idea with a stranger? :) How can we be sure one of our ideas won't be stolen? Like you roast my idea, I stop thinking about it then I'll see it's done by others :D
Hi Bitmads,
You're definitely not the only one that is a bit worried about this. There was a topic about this a while back, with some very good responses: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/if-i-present-my-idea-to-people-for-feedback-it-will-be-stolen-0d88ee0627.
In general, if you don't trust something, don't do it. I understand that Bootloop.io doesn't show any testimonials (yet). Hopefully they will come soon!
don't worry about this.
Filled out the form. Looking forward to you review of T.LY.
Oh ny how little links! No one wants to be roasted.
I drop ours.
HTML responsive templates ready to customize out of the box.
For startups & personal use.
Thanks a lot Ruud
Hey Michael. Your templates look good, but the problem is the main UI/UX of your site. If you look at others from a similar scene, such as Cruip or HTML5up, you'll find that you can immediately preview the template, and later choose to download it in whichever format you want to. On your site, I have to first view the tech stack and then click on preview. I wouldn't be there for that long just to view how the template looks. Hope this helps.
Thank you.
Click the image, you see the template and a button to download it.
But I could make it more obvious...
Cheers !
haha this is excellent ~ i have so many stupid ideas
hopefully just enough of them to find a great one :)
Hi Ruud,
Alright, just sent you my idea. It's not my main focus right now. Looking forward for your comment!
Would love to get https://midnight.pub roasted. :) Thanks!
My idea is in the validation stage
www.affordablelaw.ng
@ruudniew this is exactly what i'm looking for now.
Please roast me like there is no tomorrow https://glitterly.app (also submitted through your form but feel free to do it in public here)
Glitterly TLDR:
Tool for editing videos of software apps.
Use cases:
-"How to" Documentation
https://aboutsnack.com
The pitch is pretty simple – we build authentic remote team relationships through 1:1 conversations. It is a competitor to Donut, which is a Slack app that allows to plan 1:1. Historically, their bot was designed for in person meetings. Snack is addressing the gap in virtual team meeting space.
It is getting a great traction, but a ton of users fall off after the initial onboarding. Therefore, feedback about onboarding would be great.
It is a bit challenging to test it since you need multiple people for full experience, but you can get the gist by using
/snack testcommand. And please, do not hold back. :-)This comment was deleted 3 years ago
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Hi there Azhan,
Would you like me to roast the landing page as it is now? I can do a quick pass and post it publicly in a comment here. You can also fill out the form on bootloop.io, and then I'll do the thorough test and email you the results.
A quick glance could be a good way to see if the message is clear.
I like that you're attempting to do something about what causes most cybersecurity problems: human errors. However, the problem you're trying to solve is too big, and the solution is too vague.
Try to narrow the scope of the problem you're trying to solve. You're probably not trying to prevent each and every hack from occurring on the planet. The problem you're trying to solve is that passwords often aren't very secure, for various reasons. I'm not sure if you can solve this problem with physical cards, but digital cards are likely even worse than a password. Once you narrow the scope of the problem, you need to prove that your solution will actually work. You can try to build an MVP for example.
Thanks for your feedback. At the moment, it is in the validation stage. If you got any suggestions, then let me know.