Wantrepreneur or Indie Hacker? (FormWatch 2nd day)

This weekend I have been doing a one-man hackathon to kickstart my first IH project - FormWatch. You can read my 1st post "One man, one idea, one weekend" under Building in Public.

I started out in high spirits on the first day and got a lot of work done. It felt great to be able to finally buckle down, get my ideas out of me head and see them take shape on the computer screen.

Then on day two I hit a major roadblock. A technical problem that meant that it wouldn't be feasible for non-technincal people to use FormWatch. Since my target audience is non-technincal SMB that was a real problem! I spent several hours researching alternative technical implementations, but to no avail.

I eventually decided to step away from the computer and go for a walk to think things through. I down know about you, but my best ideas rarely come to me when I am sitting in front of the screen. So I closed my labtop and stepped outside. And sure enough, as I was walking along in the late afternoon sun, I was able to zoom out and see past the immediate problem.

In this phase I am building an MVP, not a perfect product. The technical roadblock is still there and it's good to be aware of it, but there are other more important areas to focus on. Like; will anyone pay to use FormWatch, how will I reach my target audience etc.

It occured to me that if I let a technical issue like this keep me back, then I didn't really want to be an IndieHacker. It would be an excuse to say "oh well, at least I tried" to save face and go back to my normal consulting routine. There's a word for that; a wantrepreneur 😦

The solution to my challenge will be to provide two options for customers; 1) a do-it-yourself option for the technincal users and 2) a done-for-you option for the non-technical users. And who knows, maybe the done-for-you option will prove to be the better solution and I can drop the other option. At this stage I have so much exploration and learning to do.

The 2nd day started out being a real bummer, but at the end of the day I was more excited than even for FormWatch! Not only was I able to think myself out of the rut, but with my new approach I am able to skip a huge development task which takes me much closer to a MVP. An MVP that I will have to market and get in front of potential customers. And for me, as a developer, that's when the real challenges will being 😀

Keep hacking! 🦆