I have built, launched and threw away many side projects, this is my manifesto not to waste time, deliver and stay sane without regrets

You know that feeling when you say to yourself, “Oh, this is a great idea, I am going to build this over the weekend!”, starting with planning session, jotting down gazillion of great features you would throw in, which are of course necessary for the project to succeed. You already have a name, you already bought the domain name, with all the possible extensions (so nobody can pretend to be your business once it will reach mass audience — which will happen very likely minutes after the launch right?). You are obsessing about what technology you are going to use, perhaps you will throw in a design system too, just to be ready for future once you hire more people.

Then days, weeks, in the worst scenario months pass by and you still have no output, nothing to show. You are still working on it, still dreaming and believing how successful it will be. It is a side project, so the main focus is elsewhere. Then it fades away, having no output means there is no feedback and simply getting feedback from your friends when you randomly tell them about how your project is the best is not enough, although it might be enough for you for few days, that you have accomplished something, but the only thing you did was to brag about it.

So you slow down, you are less excited, perhaps even demotivated, that it is turning bigger than you think. You do not have anyone who can actually comment on your work thus far, because if you were to show it, you would feel embarrassed that it is not as perfect as you imagined, that perfect project you have dreamed of. You start doubting whether it will even work, given how big it is becoming. You slow down more. Your partner or relatives starting to see you as a dreamer that will never deliver. You eventually re-focus, start doing something else. Without a closure.

Months pass by, and you just remembered that you were working on a side project, that would be so great, and one day you have to finish it, but now it feels like a burden, something that hangs there, unfinished, but in your eyes still great, one day you will finish it perhaps. Full of regrets not finishing it then. Then a friend sends you a link to a similar project as your idea, built, ready and launched, and successful, with getting all that press attention. You feel almost depressed, down, sad… It was your idea first! This was supposed to be your moment in the news! Side-projects graveyard got a new tombstone and you are left with a scar.

This and many similar stories I have heard before, from myself and from others. I am a maker and a dreamer, and I struggled with delivery and execution. I got too attached to the project itself, forgetting what reality is — not considering resources, customers (if there were any), and many other aspects.

For the last few years I have created my own manifesto that I like to think is on a similar level as MVP (Minimum Viable Product) but with different mindset and less research. It allows me to start and finish a project (not necessarily launch). It is called:

PPoS — Primitive Piece of S**t — http://ppos.info

The name itself is not to get hype through cursing, but to keep the distance from the project. It is a Primitive S**t, so you should look at it that way, it is a discovery, it does not have to be pretty, it is a challenge to see what you will be able to deliver before the deadline that you have set for yourself.

It is also a commitment, that you will throw it away if you will not meet the deadline, which would free some space in your brain for another project, it will spare you of regrets later, because if you are going to ditch it, you already know it is either too big, too complex, or your approach wasn’t the best in relatively short time, but you have tried, you were honest with yourself.

However, even if you ditch the first attempt, you can start over, differently, as a new project, descoped, to keep it to minimum features, design, etc… Still, it is a S**t and a primitive one.

It takes practice, none of the frameworks will make you perfectly descope features and ideas from the very first try while maintaining your focus. When you fail, it means you have things to learn and an opportunity to do better next time. I have built quite a lot of side projects (one became larger company) in the last decade, some were considered as main projects too.

I am launching another side project this week. One year ago I went through the PPoS questions, realised I have some other things to work on (including another side project), so I did throw it away. Got back to it one month ago, ran through the questions again as a new project, after reading my notes from one year ago. Scoped the minimum with mindset that what I am building now is not pretty, does not have to have a name, be simple and the simplest portion should be functional at core. Technology stack has been chosen based on what I am most familiar with, so what, that the codebase is not the prettiest, it just has to work now, if there will be a reason to rewrite it and refactor, it means it has probably taken off. Few weeks later I was done with PPoS. Happy with the outcome (remember, I am building Primitive S**t). Thought about the name (which I was thinking about already, not going to lie), bought the domain, added a bit of a design (simple, used stock designs, in a PPoS way). And this week, I will see how it will be received. But at this point, PPoS ends, and the side project reached its first phase, where I will be deciding how much time I will dedicate to it, but now based on the feedback from its users. It might as well die after the launch, which is also fine, more space for another project in my head. Time to move on.

I would love to hear if you were in the same/similar position and how you approach your side projects. And if you are going to try PPoS, share your outcomes, we can improve it or add more notes for those who are starting. Do you keep count of unfinished side projects? :)

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This was also published in r/sideProject, perhaps medium will help me to start writing again.

Photo by Cayetano Gil on Unsplash