Ask HN: How do you know what you're working on is worth working on?
22 comments
Just build it because it’s something you want to build. My current side project is something I have been working on for 1.5 years and I have not shown it to anybody else. It does not solve for world peace but it does solve for multiple problems I have.
I've built one for about 3 years. It's simply a todo app, but it solves my personal worflow very well.
To be frank, this is a horrible suggestion if you want to see whether it’s worth it if you are trying to monetize it.
First you validate your idea by seeing if there is a potential market for it. Talk to people. See if someone is excited about it. Show them your work in progress.
See if there is already a company in that space and find a differentiator.
First you validate your idea by seeing if there is a potential market for it. Talk to people. See if someone is excited about it. Show them your work in progress.
See if there is already a company in that space and find a differentiator.
My personal experience doing this for about 1.5 years is that if your personal project solves meaningful problems that you have personally there are great odds other people will find it equally useful provided it does something different or better than existing solutions. That is all that's required to make an open source hobby project at least marginally successful, but you are correct in that it will absolutely not gauge value of a potential commercial project.
Paying users are very different than casual users. This marketability is nonetheless predictable though. Projects that solve a business problem of greater expense than what they cost in monetary charges pay for themselves, which is more than sufficient to determine product-market fit provided salesmanship and merchandising.
Paying users are very different than casual users. This marketability is nonetheless predictable though. Projects that solve a business problem of greater expense than what they cost in monetary charges pay for themselves, which is more than sufficient to determine product-market fit provided salesmanship and merchandising.
There is much more than just creating a product that saves more money than it costs or even marketing.
You’ve got to get over the “no one got fired for buying IBM” problem. I’ve been on the decision making side enough times to know that it’s hard to get a business to trust an unknown vendor.
There was a “Show HN” here recently where someone was creating a SaaS product to manage 1 on 1s between managers and reports. I got a lot of push back when I said there was no way in hell any company would or should trust their proprietary company information to a one man SaaS.
The author hadn’t even heard about other well known SaaS products that had that feature as part of their product (Lattice).
You don’t start a project with the goal of monetization without looking at the competitive landscape and market positioning.
He was completely blind to the idea that no company of any size wants to manage logins either. Every SaaS company integrates with SSO. Just talking to one person who knew anything about business sales would know this.
I wouldn’t even think about doing a Show HN without at least talking about those issues.
You’ve got to get over the “no one got fired for buying IBM” problem. I’ve been on the decision making side enough times to know that it’s hard to get a business to trust an unknown vendor.
There was a “Show HN” here recently where someone was creating a SaaS product to manage 1 on 1s between managers and reports. I got a lot of push back when I said there was no way in hell any company would or should trust their proprietary company information to a one man SaaS.
The author hadn’t even heard about other well known SaaS products that had that feature as part of their product (Lattice).
You don’t start a project with the goal of monetization without looking at the competitive landscape and market positioning.
He was completely blind to the idea that no company of any size wants to manage logins either. Every SaaS company integrates with SSO. Just talking to one person who knew anything about business sales would know this.
I wouldn’t even think about doing a Show HN without at least talking about those issues.
That’s honestly a great perspective
Is this an ad or a question?
I would say domain knowledge and experience. I've been in my industry for long enough to spot situations where my work will have disproportionate impact. The longer I am in this industry, the more knowledge, contacts and followers I have, so I can be very effective at building things, getting them validated, and finding users for it.
I would say domain knowledge and experience. I've been in my industry for long enough to spot situations where my work will have disproportionate impact. The longer I am in this industry, the more knowledge, contacts and followers I have, so I can be very effective at building things, getting them validated, and finding users for it.
It’s a bit of both.
I’m not in the industry or part of a company yet—I’m still on the younger side.
I’ve had many ideas and I work on them, but nothing really takes off. I keep coming back to the same question: is this worth it? Especially because every idea I have, I run it by my friends—they love it, I build it, they don’t use it, and I’m left with a dead project, a half-empty wallet, and goals I could have pushed further with if I hadn't taken up the project.
Bit of an ad because I am trying my best to get my product out there everywhere.
I’m not in the industry or part of a company yet—I’m still on the younger side.
I’ve had many ideas and I work on them, but nothing really takes off. I keep coming back to the same question: is this worth it? Especially because every idea I have, I run it by my friends—they love it, I build it, they don’t use it, and I’m left with a dead project, a half-empty wallet, and goals I could have pushed further with if I hadn't taken up the project.
Bit of an ad because I am trying my best to get my product out there everywhere.
It's an ad.
You can tell because the product answers OP's question.
You can tell because the product answers OP's question.
Unless you have a paying customer willing to pay you with just a promise of something to be delivered (see kickstarter et al, Steve Blanks's customer discovery, etc.), you don't. If it solves a problem you have and in a better way for you than other solutions then you personally get immediate value from it. From there, it's possible others may have the same problem and will be willing to pay for it. It's not guaranteed but the number of people getting value from the software will be at least n = 1.
I pretty much have the same perspective, until unless it doesn’t solve my issue, I don’t really want to work on it
For me, one signal has been whether the problems remain interesting even when progress is slow.
When working on complex systems (like anything involving long-running automation or agents), most of the real work happens in areas that don’t show up in demos: defining “done”, handling partial failures, and keeping behavior predictable.
If those problems are still worth thinking about after repeated failures, I take that as a sign the work itself is worth continuing.
When working on complex systems (like anything involving long-running automation or agents), most of the real work happens in areas that don’t show up in demos: defining “done”, handling partial failures, and keeping behavior predictable.
If those problems are still worth thinking about after repeated failures, I take that as a sign the work itself is worth continuing.
That resonates a lot.
I’ve noticed the same thing: if the shape of the problem is still interesting after the novelty wears off and progress stalls, that’s usually the real signal. The visible demo work is easy; the hard part is exactly what you said—defining “done,” handling edge cases, and making systems behave consistently under stress. If those invisible constraints keep pulling you back, it’s usually because there’s something fundamentally worth building there.
I’ve noticed the same thing: if the shape of the problem is still interesting after the novelty wears off and progress stalls, that’s usually the real signal. The visible demo work is easy; the hard part is exactly what you said—defining “done,” handling edge cases, and making systems behave consistently under stress. If those invisible constraints keep pulling you back, it’s usually because there’s something fundamentally worth building there.
Exactly.
I’ve also found that once those constraints become boring, that’s usually when the work itself is done — or not worth doing anymore.
As others have said, you don't know.
But start with you: Are you building it because you want to build it, or because you want it? Are you in love with it as a project, or as a product? Is it something you want to use?
Then, when you have it as a just-barely-usable thing, give it to a few people who have the same need. Get their feedback. Does it actually help them? If so, then you may have something.
But start with you: Are you building it because you want to build it, or because you want it? Are you in love with it as a project, or as a product? Is it something you want to use?
Then, when you have it as a just-barely-usable thing, give it to a few people who have the same need. Get their feedback. Does it actually help them? If so, then you may have something.
I want to build it because I want it. In love with a building my own company, and I’ll actually use it. It’s something I want to work on, trying to get more and more users because it’s community driven.
So yeah, I do think it solves a great issue at hand. It solves mine atleast. But it’s community driven, it’s not possible to make it effective with 3-4 users, need at least 30-40 people.
You can't know the future value of a project. You will always learn things along the way, and it's important to consider the value of those lessons in your consideration.
I've wasted far too much time in analysis paralysis, and not spent enough time trying things. Hopefully you can find a better balance.
I've wasted far too much time in analysis paralysis, and not spent enough time trying things. Hopefully you can find a better balance.
Ahh I see your point
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I see so many posts on reddit, people asking for validation. So I made a community-driven platform for it, I am attaching that link only: https://ideavo.tripivo.co.in
But my question remains, if you don't get any validation, why to take that risk of doing it?