What's something you built that you thought was genius and nobody used?

Three months. Two developers. One feature nobody used.

I knew it was bad when I checked the analytics and saw that the only person who used it more than once was me. And even I stopped after the second week.

Here's how I knew it was a waste of time. Not in hindsight. In the moment. I just ignored the signs.

The first sign: I couldn't explain it in one sentence.

If you can't tell someone what your feature does in 10 words, you don't know what it does. I gave this big rambling pitch about "content planning and scheduling and automation." People nodded. Nobody asked follow-up questions.

The second sign: Nobody asked for it.

I built it because I thought it was clever. Not because anyone said "I wish I had this." I was so proud of the idea that I forgot to check if anyone actually wanted it.

The third sign: I was the only one excited about it.

When we launched, my team was quiet. No one was testing it. No one was sharing it with clients. That should have been a red flag. When the people closest to the product aren't using it, no one else will.

The fourth sign: I kept explaining why it was useful.

Good products don't need explaining. You show them once and people get it. I found myself explaining over and over. "Here's why this is helpful. Here's the problem it solves." If you have to explain why it's useful, it's not useful.

The fifth sign: I was attached to the idea, not the problem.

I wanted this feature to exist. I wanted to be right about it. So I ignored all the signs and kept building. That's the dangerous part. You fall in love with your own cleverness and stop listening to the world telling you it's not working.

What I learned:

Now I don't build anything without three things. One, a one-sentence pitch that makes sense to anyone. Two, five people who say "yes I need that" before I write a line of code. Three, the willingness to kill something that isn't working even if I already built it.

The feature died. But I stopped wasting time on stuff nobody asked for. That was worth the three months.

What's the thing you built that you thought was genius and nobody used? What signs did you ignore?

Imed Radhouani
Founder & CTO – Rankfender
Building things people actually use (and why I built Rankfender to stop guessing)