Imran Cengic

I started sharing what I was building because I liked the idea of it. Accountability, feedback, community. All the reasons people give.

What I did not expect was the way it changes the way you think. Every decision starts to include an imaginary audience. You find yourself choosing the version of your work that will make the best post instead of the one that is best for the product.

I spent a week last year doing a refactor that shipped nothing. No new features, no bug fixes, no visible change.

It was painful. Every day I felt behind. Every day I looked at it and thought this is a week I will never get back.

Getting nice compliments during beta testing feels amazing, but it gives you total false confidence.

The real test is whether someone is annoyed enough by their current workflow to pull out their credit card or log in every single day.

If your testers don't desperately need a solution their feedback on UI or buttons doesn't matter much.

Do you offer incentives to bring in complete strangers for testing or do you rely on communities like this one?