Idea to product and 500 users in 36 hours
I recently built and released ⏣ Darwin: a minimal crowdsourced active learning app. All it does is test you daily with questions from anything you’re learning with the ability to collaborate with friends in the process.
It’s free. It’s super minimal. Looks good. Took roughly 14 hours to create and had 500 users 6 hours after it was launched.
Design first: There’s no substitute for good design
75% of this app’s appeal has to do with the user experience and design. It’s the user’s only portal t0 the solution you’re offering and can easily be leveraged as a massive advantage over a world of badly designed competitors and related products.
Practice designing fast — if it’s simple enough that it can go from how you imagine it, directly into code without having to prototype or sketch it out in-between, then you’ve got yourself a lean design.
More often than not you’ll have to pivot and redo most of what you’ve worked on based off of how real users interact with your product. Focus on getting a useable product out as soon as possible so you can start testing. Don’t waste your time or creative energy on anything too elaborate.
Once you’ve got the product out, start testing with real users, track every metric available to you. With most online products you can leverage anything from Google analytics or Mixpanel to Facebook analytics for free.
Build fast: Leverage the right tools
Building even a super-minimal application in a matter of hours wouldn’t be possible without the right tools. When you’re testing out an idea you need to cut all possible overhead.
Don’t re-invent the wheel. Thousands of powerful open-source frameworks exist to help you impliement most basic functionality! Here’s what I used to build Darwin and most other things I create:
1. Laravel: PHP framework
2. Laravel -> Passport: For social authentication
3. Facebook graph API: Super simple login + a user's social networkThat’s what I’m comfortable with using right now. In the past I’ve worked with various tools to get things up and running. Find what works for you and stick to them, here’s a small timeline of some of my projects:
2013: Soosci — 5000 lines of code: 30 hours
A minimal social networking interface. But with PHP without a framework.
2014: InPres— 10,000 lines of code: 50–80 hours
A simple social profile aggregator built over CakePHP. Never really worked for me.
2015: WishFor — (wishfor.xyz) — 2000 lines of front-end code: 36 hours
Give and get gifts, wishlist manager. Built at a hackthon with Nick without any framworks.
2017: Darwin — (toDarwin.com) — 2500 lines of code: 14 hours
Active learning tool, built with Laravel.
2016–17: Tidl — (tidl.es) — 140,000 lines of code so far…
My primary startup. AI driven, skill based professional platform. Call it LinkedIn for millennial. Built with Laravel.
Personally I prefer to pour a larger part of my effort into the user experience and it usually pays off. The user never sees the back-end of your product, but you don’t want to pay the price of technical debt in the long run. For this reason it makes sense to leverage well documented and managed open-source tools to build a great back-end with minimum effort.
Launch to the right people
Find the right demographic with people who can give you objective (even critical) feedback. As a creator you’re by default looking at your creation with blinders on. Criticism can hurt but it does more good than harm.
If you’re solving a problem for yourself, you’re more likely to have insight that helps you design a better solution. If not, stick to the feedback.
Product Hunt is my go-to place for launching new products. There’s no better community of helpful individuals who’re more than willing to give your product a shot and share their thoughts. Reddit and niche Facebook groups are another great source.
As with all communities you get what you put in. As a creator invest time in these communities. Genuinely support other creators with their projects and foster a healthy network .
Finding the right market is a function of both right timing and necessity.
First to come are family and friends, then it’s your social groups: colleagues and classmates. Beyond that it’s all strangers — and they’re also the first to go if your product sucks…
Iterate fast and test thoroughly
People asked for an app, so I gave them an app…
Right now it’s a very simple android version of the online app which took me an hour to put together. But in the user’s hand it’s an app never-the-less. It can be updated with the push of a button anytime I want to build up.
Hundreds if not thousands of products are just waiting to take your product’s place. So it’s important to make sure your user’s needs are being met. You may not get it right the first time — so iterate and publish updates as fast as you possibly can.
Aim to make each next user at least a little bit more satisfied with your product.
When it comes to how successful a product might be, there are many individual forces at play that come together in just the right manner. Everything from your value proposition to product design and marketing strategy are key components. As a creator it’s your job to balance it all.
Call to action: go checkout Tidl 👇
