consumer playbook — validating ideas

If i can start over my indie hacking journey. I would treat my life as i only have 3 months of the runway—and start working backward. This is how I would do it today:

phase 1: look for a signal

• pick a problem you or your community have.

• pick a market that is easy to target, has purchasing power, & growing.

• make your ideas easy to understand in one sentence to spread quickly.

• Idea that is familiar but done differently—most advanced, yet acceptable.

• bet on 1 core feature with 1 user journey, do less really well.

• share the design/landing page with your community first before building it.

• look for signals— a lot of people care/nobody cares.

• if the latter, start over.

define "a lot of people" ?

idk but, for me at least one of these in the first week:

• 10K views or,

• 100 sign up or,

• 10 quality people in a group chat actively engage,

• 1 person asks you to "take my money" instantly.

because it's sad to build something nobody wants and try so hard to grow it.

phase 2: build it fast & grow

• if a lot of people care—then build & launch it in weeks not months.

• I don't subscribe to MVPs anymore, but to focus on doing less really well.

• Focus on 1 core features & 1 user journey, & add novelty if possible.

• Design how you'd grow it before building the product (learn 1, 2, 3)

• Do things that don't scale, talk to your users. (1)

• Find the first 10 people who love your product.

• Invest in one repeatable distribution channel to grow it (endless stream of potential users).

• Try growing 7% weekly growth rate / 15% monthly active users growth rate until the end of 3 months.

phase 3: monetize powers users & grow to 1K MRR

• charge as early as possible.

• look for engagement in meaningful product usage.

• meaningful product usage means the good combination of retention & engagement of your product.

• if you're selling a consumer productivity app, you might aim for weekly retention & multiple daily usage.

• minimum retention for the consumer at least 20% (weekly/monthly depending on the product).

• define what to keep free on your product & what to charge. (1, 2, 3)

• bet on 5% to 20% power users (meaningful usage & retention), then charge.

• if you can reach this point, then congrats!

what's next?

Pick a minimum bar to continue working on your experiments:

• hit ramen profitability.

• have a consistent weekly growth rate (5 - 7% = good | 10% = exceptionally well).

• have meaningful usage & retention (30% - 50% monthly retention) (1, 2).

after 3 months If none of the above is achieved, just move on.

unless you have an unlimited runway, it's up to you to grow it even further.

I know this is an oversimplified version of the actual execution. but that's one of the playbook i'd like to go with.

i wish i do it earlier.