Starting a new project can be daunting

I’ve been working on some new utility projects over the last few weeks, and starting from scratch can be a daunting task.

You start out with heaps of ideas and the initial enthusiasm clouds the reality of the task at hand. But as time progresses and features start to appear you begin to realise how big even the simplest things can be.

Its often at this time in the project that they get thrown into the ‘later’ pile never to be resumed again.

Its the daunting scope of your initial ideas that may be your enemy over and over again. But don’t be stopped. Most probably you have something working, or nearly there and with a little focus and some effort you can probably ship it.

But you need to prioritise. Focus on the minimum viable product. Get your ideas listed somewhere, a wiki, whiteboard, bug tracker, Google doc.. Just get the important things down.  Now cut the list to only the essential features. If there is a way to get it in the hands of its target users without the feature put it off.

Hopefully you’ll now find 2-3 things that must be done and a heap you would like to do. Focus on the first couple and get it into the hands of some users.

Just ship it..

Remember that just like Rome all the great products you use today were not built in a day. They most probably started off as a small fraction of what they were and have been shaped by feedback from users and other products.

While we now have access to great libraries and platforms to work with, they only do so much. You need to use the right ones in the right ways.

Shipping a new product can be daunting thinking about all of the work to come, but remember what you have achieved so far and focus on completing the minimal remaining features to get your product into the hands of your users.