First off, let me just say that much of the time was actually just spent learning web development. (Go, Vue, Tailwind). I was a complete beginner one year ago.
That also why I don’t regret having built the site: I learned a ton and I’ll be able to build my next project 10x faster.
That said, here’s what you can learn from my mistakes:
- Don’t be afraid of competition.
Going after markets with low competition isn’t a bad idea. You can be a big fish in a small pond. But it gets problematic when the market is so niche that noone actually needs what you are making. With my next product, I’ll go after a proven market. Sure there’ll be competition, but at least people will be interested in what I have to offer.
- Design is less important than you think.
I made 3 different landing pages for my product, thaught there was something wrong with it every time and made a new one from scratch. Complete waste of time. Pretty design doesn’t change your value proposition and is never going to be a reason someone buys. Sure, good design can improve conversion rates, but if there is no instrinsic demand for what you offer then design won’t help. 0•x = 0
- Know your customers
One of my main challenges when building my product (keepyourstory.com) was that I was never really sure who it was for. I just built something I found cool and hoped people would appreciate it. Next time I’ll start with a niche, find a problem people are experiencingbin that niche and market it precisely to them.
I’m in the same boat, what we learn in our first try will make the next launch quite faster.
A good start but I believe that your point about design is a fallacy. Keep in mind that you didn’t get any customers so you can’t judge based on your experience. Design also is a very broad term. It can include a FAQ section or anything about making your customer understand what you’re selling and solving for them. I don’t see anything like that on your page. So please don’t think design doesn’t matter. It does if you apply it properly. In terms of A/B testing I agree that it comes at a later point and doesn’t really matter in the beginning as long as you see some demand.
- It sounds like design being less I’m important is actually not the takeaway Because good design/Ux is actually extremely important and will beat out your competitors if you have product market fit.
Sounds like the takeaway is probably more realistically the following
If you don’t have a product that actually solves a problem for people then it doesn’t matter how beautiful your design and interactions are people will not come pay for it.