Dan Benham

Hey Makers! I was having a nostalgic moment and looking back at past projects I worked on, and it got me thinking, what was the first product you launched? What did you learn? And is it still live? My first was oozled, in 2014. A simple idea: a place for designers to discover must-have tools and resources. The idea came about because of a Medium post that went semi-viral (for the time) https://medium.com/@de/resources... - and of course, I launched on Product Hunt https://www.producthunt.com/post... What did I learn? It was a super quick project that went from blog post > idea > product within a couple of weeks and taught me a lot about speed, iteration and not waiting till an idea was "perfect" before going live, previously I'd designed multiple ideas to the point where I was 5 versions in, 100s of hours spent in design tools, and nothing to show for it other than pixels. Is it still live? Nope. I decided to shut down oozled last year, as although it grew nicely, over the years I was unable to maintain it while also working full time (at the time I was running a design studio with a friend). I don't regret it as my priorities were different at the time, and knowing when to kill an idea is just as important as deciding when to start one. Anyway, that's my story! Looking forward to hearing yours!