Launching Two Products in Four Weeks -Reflections
In the past two weeks, I launched two products as a solo maker.
AtomicLanguage and AtomicVocab
Making my own products had been on my mind for a couple of years at this point. For the past few years, I have freelanced and worked on projects for other clients, but never developed and launched my own thing. Yet, now I have done two MVPs in 4 weeks.
What changed?
There are a few factors, but I would say the main one is, that I was tired of waiting.
For myself at least, I would have all these ideas in my head and never execute them. It was never the right time, I didn’t have the right skills, I was not able to find the right people or the right tools, etc. All excuses. At this point, I have gone through this cycle many times. This time I was just too fed up at tired with the excuses I was making for myself, and I just made something.
My original plan was to make AtomicLanguage into an interactive web app → used too much time to figure out node.js, react, next.js → How can keep the core concept of habitual language learning and do it with skills i already have → newsletter course. I keep the same core concepts, but I don’t need to develop everything. It does not need to be perfect or even exactly what I imagined in my mind. I just need to launch it! This helped me a ton.
The product should not be perfect, or even what you imagine in your mind. An idea is abstract, a launched product is real and usable. Whatever state is it in.
In the creating face of Atomic language, I doubted myself all the way through it. I doubted the product, the landing page was not good enough, will anybody sign up for the newsletter, should I just drop it? No. That was not an option. I knew that the disappointment of not being able to finish it would be greater than any possible “embarrassment” I would feel if the product “failed”.
AtomicLangaugeLaunch day on Product Hunt: 90+ upvotes, 35 sign-ups to the course, and #12 overall place of the day.
I did not expect to go viral or have any success of that sort, but I feel that still, something clicked in my mind then. 90+ people thought my product had some sort of value and 35 people wanted to try the product out. I am beginning to create something people want to use. It felt very exciting.
Starting on my second product AtomicVocan felt much easier and I felt more motivated to just get it out there.
AtomicVocab launch day on Product Hunt: 65 + upvotes, 6 new users, #23 overall place of the day
It’s funny because I was more happy with how AtomicVocab turned out as a product than AtomicLanguge, but it did not get the same attention. At the same time, I’m not very sad or disappointed about that.
I worked and released a product I personally felt was good and learned a ton in the process. In the development face, I felt like I was in constant flow, and the hours just flew by. Feels like it does not matter too much at this point how successful it was or not.
It’s cliche, but I am really starting to like the process of creating the product more than the launch itself. The launch/release of the product is just one day. Quick over and done with. What I find exciting to think about now is: What am I gonna work on next? and How can I improve on the products I already have?
These are just some rough reflections I have for now on the topic. The past 4 weeks have been fulfilling I have to say. For now, I will just keep developing and making.
Let’s see where it takes me.
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Photo: Cafe with a view — Enoshima, Japan