Have you ever started a project and stopped it to explore new things before completing it? I think this is a major distraction for people who want everything to be perfect. You know what you want to complete and how to complete it, but during the course of building it, you see a shiny thing nearby and get distracted. The worst part, is that you start using it on your existing project to somehow satisfy your desire. This is exactly what’s called Shiny object syndrome.
Working for yourself has advantages and disadvantages. I always wanted to build a business from scratch. It’s not because of the independence one get from their 9-5 day job, it’s about the freedom, and the challenging problems. All I am familiar with is web application development, and a bit of mobile application. Every technology advancements have a hype cycle. Gartner’s hype cycle, I kind of agree with, can be used as a framework for analysing a technology. We are currently in the peak of the cycle, I believe, and the change this time would be a new mark.
Making a product involves a lot of research. The research helps to make decisions, build something different, and gives an idea about the market in general, for product creation. I have done some research before building my side projects. Most of the time, it’s about existing product availability and their features. This has really helped me to focus more on validating an idea. Scenarios like this would motivate one to proceed with a dream and make it work. In my case, this helped me create Hellokea and Mailboxfiler. Though they’re not used by many, it gave me a clear-cut path for connecting the dots.
Yesterday, I wrote about my new side-hustle. Before starting the research on whether to proceed further, I would like to elaborate on what’s my idea and end product would be. There is a bit of an imagination here. No code, no research, and I haven’t looked at any competitor websites. So bear with me if it sounds too futuristic.
One fine day, you decide to read an article on your computer and open your favorite browser, as usual. After a bit of reading, a line gets stuck in your brain, and you decide to post it to a social media platform.
Building something that people use is really hard. Making someone find your product and convincing them to use it is a lot harder. I believe this is where the marketing and sales come in. I have built a few side projects like this one here and there. Hellokea is the one that I have spent the most of my time on a side-hustle. It’s complex. It has a few features that not many competitor products have in common. The hardest part for me is convincing people to use it. Of course, I still have to make the website richer and create videos for documentation. But, again, I am not sure whether it would make people use this product after hours of effort. I would consider myself to be a developer who doesn’t want to get involved in the marketing or sales side of a business. This is the part where most software developers or people trying to make a business fail. And, I am, for sure, in that group.