6-Month Side Project Retrospective (Including the Failure Story)
I've effectively shelved the side project I started late last year as of this week. I figured I'd write up a failure retrospective in case it helps someone.
To get straight to the point: "tech wasn't the problem." The stack was Next.js + Supabase, and I shipped an MVP in three weeks; early response wasn't bad either. The problem was what came after.
1. I underestimated marketing. Getting one user took 10x longer than writing code.
2. I focused only on adding features. Instead of asking users what they wanted, I built what I wanted to build.
3. Because I was doing it alone, every decision was trapped in my own bias. With no one to give feedback, I kept repeating the same pointless mistakes.
The most painful part was #3. What I learned this time is that the real risk of a solo side project isn't development time—it's isolation in your judgment. Next time, I'm going to start much smaller and with a paid model from day one.
If you've had a similar experience, please leave a comment. I need some cheering up lol.
8 answers
This is so true lol. Underestimating marketing is a total classic. I spent 2 weeks on code and 6 months getting users.
I see #3 a bit differently. Rather than isolation in judgment, isn't it just that they didn't validate the market? The claim that they kept doing useless things because there was no one to give feedback—honestly, the cause is that they didn't ask users, and 'because they were alone' sounds closer to an excuse. Even if you do it as a team, if you don't ask users, you'll fail just the same.
Got a source? lol No, where would a retrospective post have sources? Sorry
Same here. But I'm not sure "charging money from the start" is really the answer. When you add monetization early on, there are often cases where user acquisition itself dies... I agree with keeping the scale small.
Three weeks for an MVP is pretty fast to have built, so it's a shame. If you don't mind my asking, how "not bad" was the initial response, roughly? If you can share things like signup numbers or retention, please be sure to include them in your next post. I'm most curious whether those metrics are real traction or just an illusion.
Well, that’s a bit... The saying 'tech wasn’t the problem' is something only people who are already doing well say, and for most people, tech is the first problem... If you have the skills to ship an MVP in three weeks, I’d say that’s a different case from the start.
Agreed—isolation is genuinely scary. That’s why these days I just joined a Discord community and share my progress once a week. It creates a forced deadline and also shakes up my judgment a bit, so that alone makes it worth it.
I enjoyed reading this. Since you're going to start small next time, I'll be rooting for you haha. Just writing up a failure retrospective is already an asset for your next project.