I need to take a step back

Before you assume the worst, let me reassure you:

I’m NOT postponing or abandoning the project — it’s still my primary focus, I’m going to fully commit to it, and I’m not going on any break at the moment.

As you may have noticed, in the last 3 weeks there were little news from me, and little progress on the app. First I tweeted that I wanted to do some maintenance and marketing, then in two weeks I announced the update would be late by a week but with some new features. Now when that week is gone too, I want to explain myself and break the truth before it gets any worse.

And the truth is, I got really torn between trying to bump sales, sticking to the plan, and accommodating feature requests. This crippled me hard. I didn’t have the gut to say I hadn’t planned to implement those requested features asap, and that led to over-promising, lots of pressure, but worst of all — losing control and steering away from the plan. That is why now I need to take a step back, regroup, and get back on track.

Don’t get me wrong. I do value your feedback. It is the most enjoyable part of the whole endeavor. Coding doesn’t bring me joy — the only thing that does is seeing people using and liking my product. A lot of requested features make sense to have. And, to be frank, I understand that to sell my product and be able to make a living of it, I have to give my users what they want.

But that’s where the conflict lies.

Three.do is a visionary product. It was built with a clear vision of a simple reminder app that challenges all those complicated to-do apps, reduces the friction of capturing tasks, and tries to teach the user to stop adding unnecessary details. It doesn’t try to be a fits-all app — if it tried to cater to every request it would end up being just another Todoist clone. Instead, visionary products are based on an “I know better” premise, and users either put their trust into what the developer is doing, or find something else to use.

This is what I want to reinstate here. I know better. For the sake of this project, and for the sake of my sanity, I hereby apologize to you if I promised to deliver your feature request at some nearest future. I’m asking for your patience with regard to those features, and for your trust in what I’m doing.

Here’s the plan:

1. First priority is to work on things that support the original vision: finish all work on custom tiles, improve the UI there, improve app experience overall (mobile first).
2. Then I must implement sync, since it’s the feature promised for Q1 2019 ever since launch, quite a few people pre-paid for it, and it’s relatively low-effort now to add.
3. Along with that I must finally update the pricing. Keeping the early deals this long is unfair towards the earliest adopters who should have been rewarded for believing in the product despite not knowing whether those paid features would ever ship.
4. Only after that I can start working on side features that are definitely nice to have but not detrimental to the vision (e.g., recurrence, improvements to calendar integration, checklists in notes etc.)

What else:

• I’ll reorganize the roadmap. It won’t give deadline expectations, but will be ordered by priority.
• For a while I’ll steer clear of social media and other feedback sources.
• I’ll keep working on the app daily, no excuses. I’ll just do it on my pace, my plan.

That is until I get back on track.

I really need to reclaim control.

And I’ll start by cleaning the piled up mess in my goddamn room.