Hello, loyal reader.

It's always tough writing one of these retros when I haven't done it in a while. The truth is that I didn't feel like I achieved anything significant to blog about it. Including now, but now it's more of an exercise to get my mind out of the weeds.

I have an issue with concluding projects and/or deciding to not focus my full attention on them. Instead of drawing a line and stating "I'm done!", I end up meandering in limbo until I've created enough distance from the project that it's easier to let myself do something else.

This awful strategy wastes many years of my life. For example, just take look at my /projects page and note the gap between launch dates.

Another issue I'm trying to address is me building things that nobody wants (to pay for). That being said, I started a new project. This time, however, I'm proud to say that I haven't built it yet. I forced myself to focus on the problem and sell the dream solution first, in the form of a landing page and waitlist signup.

Initial contact with the market has been rough. Relevant online groups and communities are hostile to self-promotion. And rightfully so I guess, especially if the product/idea is bad or expensive. However, that is my burden to bare and one of the many barriers to overcome on my journey of building a profitable software product.

Another reason for me writing this retro is because I've been feeling a little less lucky lately. As in, no exciting opportunities have come across my desk recently, and I blame my lack of public writing. It might also be that my bar for "exciting opportunities" has probably risen, simply as a result of sticking around in the "industry" for long enough. For example, requests for a "coffee chat" or "joint venture opportunity" are no longer that appealing to me because they often end up being more one sided, against my favour.

Back on building software products, when the product is built or not built the massive challenge of getting people interested in the product still lies ahead. Getting people to click "Get started" on an idea requires a deep understanding of the problem and customer, but doesn't require the product to exist.

My expected upside of following this approach is that I don't waste time building the wrong thing. The caveat being that building the wrong thing doesn't waste that much time anymore, thanks to agentic AI tools. So perhaps this is an outdated concern?

The downside is that this approach is way less fun because I need to do all the boring bits first. However, it does get me closer to reality by forcing me to engage with the market sooner, no matter how painful that reality might be.

Okay, so I skip building the product and go straight to presenting the problem/solution to the market. How do I know it's something worth building? 0 signups seems bad. 100 signups seems good. Keep in mind that each time I start a new project aimed at a new market, it's another cold start. So the level of interest I get is limited by how many people actually see my offer (i.e., it's all relative). It's better if I make the success criteria for signups a percentage of the people I've reached. <5% signups seems bad. >10% signups seems good. I guess I'll just flip a coin if it's in the middle.

I find it especially difficult to achieve that first signup. Before that happens, I'm filled with so much doubt and uncertainty about the idea because I've revealed this (aMaZiNg) concept to the world and no one has showed any interest. I know the feeling is irrational because I don't seem to care that very few strangers have even seen it.

Conclusion(s)

1. Keep focusing on the boring bits first because it forces me to face reality sooner.
2. Push through the uncertainty to at least get the first signup before considering it a failed project.
3. Liberally explore more ideas without getting too attached to the ones that stop benefitting me.

Thanks for reading! If you're interested in what happens next, I'll email it to you next month.