Was told yesterday I'm being laid off. Decided to go all in on what I've been building on the side.
Not because I had a plan. Because suddenly I have to.
The product is Just One Step. A procrastination tool. You give it something you've been putting off, it sends you one specific action — as small as possible. Not a plan, not a list. Just one thing that can sometimes lead to more.
No streaks. No habit tracking. No daily pressure. Deliberately minimal.
I built it for people who hit what ADHD researchers call an invisible wall — where beginning feels disproportionately hard no matter how small or familiar the task is. But honestly, you don't need an ADHD diagnosis to know that feeling.
I'd been building it evenings and weekends for a couple of months. Suddenly I have a lot more time, which sounds like an advantage until I realized that most of what I needed to figure out had nothing to do with the product.
So this week instead of building I've been here. Reading posts, leaving comments, trying to say something useful rather than just announcing I exist.
What I've learned in five days:
Asking people you know to test your product gets you support, not users. Those are completely different things.
The gap between "yes I'll check it out" and actually using something is enormous. Yes is a mood. Onboarding is a decision.
Distribution isn't the hard part after building. It's a completely separate mountain that nobody warns you about clearly enough.
I'm still looking for the first real testers. If you've ever been stuck on something you knew you needed to do — not because it was hard, but because you couldn't start — Just One Step might be worth trying.
Happy to answer anything about the product, the build, or what finding out you're being laid off and deciding to back yourself actually feels like.
"Yes is a mood. Onboarding is a decision." — saving that one. I'm building a small iOS memo app solo (a Captio-style replacement) and the gap you describe is exactly what I tripped over: every friend said "love it, I'll try it" and basically none opened it twice, while a handful of strangers from Reddit became my first real testers. Wishing you a soft landing on the layoff side — that forced clarity can become a strange gift, even when it doesn't feel like one. The distribution-mountain framing helped me reframe things too: I started treating "30 minutes of replies in one niche thread" as a build task, not as marketing fluff. How are you splitting time between writing here and one-on-one chats with early testers?
Really glad my message resonated.
On your question: honestly, real-life testers are only just starting to appear through IH activity. A couple of people have added it to their home screen this week which feels like a milestone, and I'm hopeful to add more over the coming weeks. Early days but the signal feels real.
Good luck with the iOS app — a Captio replacement is an underserved gap. Would love to take a look when you're ready to share it
The distinction you made between support and users is one of the most honest things I've read about early-stage building. In my case, I really hope the gap closes faster once I find people who have the specific problem right now, not people who can imagine having it someday. But with your app, someone who’s staring at a task they can't start today is a different person than someone who nods along because it sounds relatable. Have you started going to places where people are actively naming that exact stuck feeling, rather than waiting for them to find the product? I’m asking because the folks I know with ADHD describe feeling this way so they could really use your help.
Not yet — and your distinction is exactly why I should. There's a real difference between someone nodding along because it sounds relatable and someone staring at a task they can't start right now. IH has been the focus so far, but you're right that the people who need it most are probably naming it somewhere else entirely.
You mentioned the folks you know with ADHD — where would you suggest I start looking?
And what are you building?
I have not been diagnosed with ADHD, but I’ve talked to 2 friends about this. r/ADHD is the most direct answer. People post there in real time about the challenges they face with this. The comments under those posts are full of people who've already tried every productivity system and are still stuck. That's your person. Beyond Reddit: ADHD-specific Discord servers and FB groups tend to have the same live, in-the-moment venting. Maybe try ADDitude magazine's community and their IG comments too.
As for me, I just finished the build prompt for Cadence, a standalone productivity app for independent knowledge workers (e.g., writers, developers, designers, researchers, content creators) who’re tired of their to-do list turning into a graveyard of recurring tasks. The core idea is, your daily routine is a template, not a task list. Every morning, the same clean list loads. You work through it. Built-in timers passively track how long each task takes. At end of day, the app resets while silently archiving your data so you can spot patterns over time. I'm building this because I needed it myself. Every productivity tool I tried either created more cognitive overhead than it eliminated or turned my daily routine into an ever-expanding project. Cadence is the opposite; it's designed to stay small.
Cadence sounds really well considered and a great idea. The daily routine as a template rather than task list is a meaningful distinction.
r/ADHD is a great shout — though Just One Step isn't only for people with ADHD. Everyone procrastinates, the wall just hits some people harder than others. I've tried Reddit twice and got removed both times — no explanation given, so I can only assume not enough interaction before I posted. It's frustrating because I wasn't pushing the app, just trying to be present in a few conversations. I'll try again with more patience this time.
Interesting that we're solving adjacent problems. Your users have the structure; mine can't find the on-ramp. If you need someone to test, then I'd be more than happy to.
As someone who’s currently procrastinating their own project, i’d give this a try!
Really appreciate that. Here's the link — justonestep.app
To get the best experience, add it to your home screen:
iPhone: Open in Safari → tap the share icon → "Add to Home Screen"
Android: Open in Chrome → tap the three dots menu → "Add to Home Screen"
Let me know how you get on.