Ask HN: Iterating on Side Projects?
3 comments
I'm currently at somewhat similar place with my latest project good enough for my own usage to use but not really ready for public consumption because it's missing few important pieces. I've scratched my own itch and now I'm not sure whether I should keep scratching or just letting it tick as it is. I'm 80% done with it but I reckon that getting that last 20% would take at least double the time I've spent so far. Once in a while I get enthusiastic again about the project and resolve an issue or two and then think "why bother, it mostly works?" and forget about it. I've already picked all low hanging fruits and and I'm now reluctant to turn it into a job. I guess I could if I really believed that it's the next big thing but I'm pretty sure it's not so I let it just sit there. It's been a great learning experience though, good way to try out new stuff. It's also a great project to take code snippets from because I had to solve some things that I hadn't done before so there's that.
Right on dude, I feel ya.
Something that held me back initially with zukini was thinking about all the bells and whistles. Like I was even working on building a nice stripe API for a little bit. (Why? Who knows)
So I kept it aside for the longest time. Now the tables are turned and I'm like
"You know what, screw it, I can put this out there, and I can worry about everything else if I even make it to 10 users. If I don't, then who cares, why do I want to make more work for myself."
But this came after the "I don't need this any more" realisation in the OP. So even putting it up in its base form feels like a dud to me.
Something that held me back initially with zukini was thinking about all the bells and whistles. Like I was even working on building a nice stripe API for a little bit. (Why? Who knows)
So I kept it aside for the longest time. Now the tables are turned and I'm like
"You know what, screw it, I can put this out there, and I can worry about everything else if I even make it to 10 users. If I don't, then who cares, why do I want to make more work for myself."
But this came after the "I don't need this any more" realisation in the OP. So even putting it up in its base form feels like a dud to me.
There's no one answer to this question - it depends on what your goals are for your side projects. If you're just trying to learn new things and experiment, then you might want to try different approaches and see what works for you. If you're trying to create something that people will use, then you need to be constantly iterating and making sure that you're meeting your users' needs. There's no right or wrong answer, it just depends on what you're trying to achieve.
A couple of years ago i used to work for a traditional company as a technical officer that had a lot of linear / related workflows (with many external deadlines) that didn't have any project management for any of it. Emails and "final copy.xlsx" was the only thing the company ever used besides printed sheets of paper.
I tried to use something like trello to keep on top of my work (which rapidly became "everything"), but because of the multitude of things I had to be on top of at once, I felt too restricted in the "one row" trello layout. I also didn't like that people could just move things back and forth and mess up my card columns.
So as a side project I started to build my own trello like application that had what I felt I needed:
* multiple "rows" of projects, each with different number of columns if needed.
* cards can only flow left to right. and only when they fill requirements (ie file attached fill a certain naming scheme, not too many cards in a particular stage.)
* projects can connect to each other, so the end of one project would flow into another.
I thought this was a great project and was tinkering away at it, and in talking to others about it I actually got a much better job out of it as a python developer, which was completely the opposite in workflow (more single focused, simple workflows, internal deadlines, etc).
Since then the project has sorta fallen by the wayside. I still think it has merit, but I'm not that close to the heat anymore. My job uses asana and I am pretty comfortable with the workflow I have now.
I've since tried to slim back my hacky project and make it to a more robust online Saas thing for others, but without the heat of solving my own problem, I don't feel like I can properly experience using my own tool. I merely have to rely on my memories of the chaos I was trying to solve.
I'm feeling conflicted now, because I really like the project idea. I try to use it now for my new job and other side projects, but I'm not its own target audience and I don't know if it quite works for where I am at now, should I be changing it to work for me? what if there's nothing I need to be improved yet, should I just put the project down, mark it as archived and move on?
To make matters worse, I really like the name/domain of the project. it's grown to its own little thing (almost like my pet) that has to sit nicely on the shelf and not be used.
I've shown my wife the project and she thinks that it would be a good tool for her (traditional) company to use as well, but she wants her company to already doing something like it, not for me to make it work for her company.
TL;DR: Should one continue to re-work side projects to your evolving requirements, or do you archive them and move on? do you bother with putting a side project "out there" even if you don't have a need for it anymore? even if you like it?
Edit: I'm not using this as self promotion, because it's no where near ready for public consumption, but if you want to see the project, it's at https://zukini.io - you can "sign in anonymously" if you wish, which will just generate a random user and log in.