6-Month Retrospective on an After-Work Side Project (Why It Failed)
I picked up a side project late last year and spent six months on it. To get the result out of the way: revenue was 0 won, but I gained quite a lot instead. I'm writing this down because if I do it again, I don't think I'll make the same mistakes.
1. I spent three months on planning
I just kept growing the feature list. What I actually built is less than 20% of that. Looking back, I should have just shipped the smallest version first.
2. I kept changing the tech stack
I started with Next.js, then midway switched to a different framework, and changed the DB twice too. All of it was because I saw posts saying 'this is better.'
3. I didn't ask users
I imagined on my own and satisfied myself on my own. I showed it to three acquaintances and the response was lukewarm, but I ignored that and kept building.
4. I didn't keep records
I didn't write down what I did or why I did it this way, so after just a month, even my own code didn't make sense to me.
The conclusion: just ship first. There's no such thing as done. Next time, I plan to put it up within two weeks no matter what and start from there.
3 answers
Shipping within two weeks—that's the real key, I totally agree. I also gave up after just planning for three months doing something similar; if only I'd seen this post back then...
1 and 3 are pretty much the standard playbook. But I take a slightly different approach: during planning, I ban adding to the feature list altogether. I make a separate 'won't do this sprint' list in Notion and dump everything there. That way, even if my hands get itchy, I can't add anything. With user feedback too, the moment you get a lukewarm response from three acquaintances is actually the most important signal. The time you spend building after ignoring it is what you'll really regret. Next time, after you ship, start by asking your first 10 users only 'where did you get stuck?' Don't brag about features. That's the shortest path from $0 in revenue to $1.