DEV Community: Shahzaib

The 3 Questions I Ask Before Writing Any Line of Code

Shahzaib — Sat, 16 May 2026 07:41:44 +0000

I've been building web apps for 6+ years. Here's the single most valuable lesson I've learned:

Don't build what people ask for. Build what solves their actual problem.

Early on, a client said: "I need a custom chat system like Slack."

I asked three questions:
Why do you need real-time chat?
How will your users use it?
What problem are you trying to solve?

It turned out they just needed a simple notification system. What they asked for would have taken 3 months. What they needed took 1 week.

Here are the 3 questions I ask before every project now:

What is the single most important action a user will take on this page?
If you can't name it in one sentence, you're not ready to build.
What happens if we don't build this feature?
If the answer is "nothing much" - skip it.
Can we launch without this and add it later?
In 90% of cases, the answer is yes.

This approach has saved my clients thousands of dollars and months of wasted time.

Here's a full case study of how I applied this to a learning platform I built:
Case Study

The full portfolio: Shahzaib

Stop Building "Hello World" Portfolios - Build Real Business Apps Instead

Shahzaib — Thu, 14 May 2026 11:36:40 +0000

I've been looking at junior dev portfolios on Dev.to for years. And 90% of them are the same:

--> A to-do list
--> A weather app
--> A clone of some startup

Here's the harsh truth: nobody will hire you because you built a to-do list.

Clients and hiring managers don't care if you know React hooks or tailwind classes. They care if you can solve a real problem.

I learned this the hard way. When I started freelancing 6 years ago, I had a portfolio full of "cool" projects. Nobody called.

What changed? I started building things that solve actual business problems.

Real examples from my current portfolio:

Exam platform with anti-cheating - A client had a Google Forms mess. I built a system that handles 1,000+ concurrent students with real-time analytics. Live: Web Exam Platform

Learning platform with live sessions - Teachers needed a way to chat with students and host live classes. Built with Next.js + Laravel. Live: EduLegends

Ecommerce with custom CMS - A jewellery brand needed a website that their non-tech team could update. I built a full admin dashboard with product management. Live: Aurethe

Ride sharing web app – Just a clean, functional MVP that actually works. Live: Carpool

What I use in 2026 (not fancy, just reliable):
Frontend: Next.js, React, Tailwind
Backend: Laravel, PHP, Python
Database: PostgreSQL, MySQL
DevOps: AWS, Docker

The skill nobody talks about: Technical SEO.

If you build a website that ranks for keywords, you immediately separate yourself from 99% of developers. I wrote about this more on my blog: Shahzaib

Stop building "hello world." Start building things you can actually show to a client. Even if it's ugly. Even if it's small. Just make sure it works and solves a problem.

My full portfolio with 6 real case studies: Shahzaib

Let's build something that actually matters.

fullstack #laravel #nextjs #portfolio #freelance #seo

Why I stopped building "projects" and started building "products."

Shahzaib — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 09:35:15 +0000

After years of freelance "bug fixing," I realized that the real value isn't in the code—it's in the solution.

I've spent the last few months building my own Point of Sale (POS) and LMS from scratch using Laravel and React.

The biggest lesson? Database normalization is easy; handling real-world business edge cases (like partial payments and student progress tracking) is the real challenge. Seeing these systems go live on my personal platform, shahzaib.tech, was a huge milestone for my development process.

I’ll be sharing the technical breakdown of these systems over the next few weeks. If you're into system design or clean PHP architecture, let's connect!

Let's Connect:
I’m currently open to long-term roles and complex custom development. You can see my full portfolio and deep dives into my POS and LMS projects at shahzaib.tech.