How do you measure the success of your side project?
Bren Kinfa 💎 SaaS Gems
13 replies
"Success" can be subjective.
So, what's your criteria for a successful side project?
Replies
Kenny Hawkins@kenny_hawkins
For me, success for a side project means steady user growth and feedback. If you've had a side project out there for a minute and it's all crickets, maybe you should pivot?
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Ultimately, success comes from helping one person succeed.
Going quite materialistic with this and saying sales. I don't have large funding and everything is bootstrapped so if the project can support itself and its own costs. Right now I would say that's a success. (It can... currently).
What about you though @saasdesigner interest in what you have to say?
@carter_barnett
Thanks for asking!
Personally, it varies based on what I'm looking for.
In no particular order:
“Did I learn something new from this side project?” → That’s a win to me.
“Did I make money from this side project?” → That’s a win to me.
“Did [XYZ] audience find it useful?” → That’s a win to me.
@saasdesigner Love it! Think having multiple ways to define success at any given time is super useful
If it is not meant to make money - helping even a single person is already a positive result.
If your app is supposed to bring money - getting your first paying customer is always a sign that you doing something right.
Measuring the success of a side project typically involves tracking key metrics such as website traffic, user engagement, and conversions, which is then determined by how well it aligns with my goals and objectives, as well as its impact on the target audience.
Metrics are important in determining the success of your side project. __ metrics you can use to measure the success of your project includes:
-increase in traffic
-increase in conversion rate
-increase in number of signups
-increase in sales
Launching soon!
There are a lot of metrics you can choose to measure your side project. Some common ones are: the user base (how many users you have), their engagement (time spent on your platform), their satisfaction (your customer service rating), the conversion rate (from trial to purchasing), the average lifetime value of your customer, the total profit that you make. If you choose to not track most of these metrics, then you can just focus on one metric which makes sense for your business.
It depends on the reason for starting your side project. Mine is, for now, gaining experience in launching something. So I can measure the 'success' based on traffic/usage (via GA) and interaction via newsletter subscribers and feedback via a tool on my SaaS.