I used to think finding a product idea was the hardest part of building software. Not because I didn’t have ideas. Because every idea seemed to come with the same questions.
“Why would anyone use your app?”
“There are already apps that do this.”
“What’s different about yours?”
The funny thing is, nobody was asking me those questions.
I was. Every single time.
So I’d write an idea down. Open a blank project. Think about it for a while. Then convince myself not to build it. I’d tell myself the market was too crowded. Or someone else had already built it. Or I couldn’t explain why my version deserved to exist. After a while I realised I had become very good at talking myself out of building things.
Around that time I started watching Marc Lou’s videos. I don’t remember exactly which video it was. I just remember one thing standing out.
He kept building.
Not every product was a huge success. Some worked better than others. But he didn’t seem to spend months trying to answer every question before he started.
He just... built.
I remember thinking maybe I was making this harder than it needed to be.
So I tried something different. Instead of asking, “Is this a good idea?” I asked, “Would I enjoy building this?”
That sounds like a small change. For me, it wasn’t.
It took away this imaginary pressure that every side project had to become a business.
Over the next few months I built a few small products. Some of them didn’t go anywhere. Some got a few users. One of them got a single paying customer.
Most people would probably look at that and say they weren’t successful. I don’t really see them that way anymore. Each one taught me something I didn’t know before. Not just technically. About products. About writing. About talking to people.
About realising that marketing feels very different when you’ve spent your career writing code.
Something else happened that I wasn’t expecting. The more I shipped, the less I worried about finding the perfect idea. Not because I suddenly became good at finding ideas. Because I realised ideas don’t arrive fully formed.
They change while you’re building them.
Sometimes the interesting part of the product isn’t even the thing you started with. Sometimes you only discover it halfway through.
I still remember how much time I spent trying to answer one question.
“What makes your app different?”
These days I think that’s the wrong question to ask at the beginning. Not because it isn’t important. Because sometimes you genuinely don’t know yet.
Sometimes the answer only appears after you’ve spent enough time building.
I’m still figuring this out. I don’t have a framework for finding great ideas. I don’t know if the next thing I build will work.
I still have days where I wonder if anyone will ever use something I’ve spent months making.
That feeling hasn’t really gone away.
But one thing has changed. I don’t wait for certainty anymore.
I build first.
Then I listen.
Then I keep building.
Somewhere along the way, the product usually tells me what it wants to become.
Looking back, I don’t think shipping helped me find better ideas. I think it changed the way I look at them. And maybe that’s been the biggest lesson of all.
Top comments (0)