The Dev World – Sergio Lema

We’ve all been there: a brilliant idea for a new product, followed by weeks (or months) of development, only to find ourselves with an over-engineered solution and no users. It’s a common trap. We love to build, but sometimes we build too much, too soon.

To avoid this pitfall and maximize your chances of success without burning through time and money, I’ve refined a three-step framework. This approach is less about a rigid project plan and more about a strategic mindset: build small, validate fast, and scale deliberately.

Step 1: The MVP

The first step is to identify the core of your product: the one or two features that make it “the thing.” Nothing more. The goal of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) isn’t to be pretty or feature-complete; it’s to validate your core hypothesis with real users.

Focus solely on the essential functionality. If your product helps developers write better code, the MVP should be the code-writing assistant, not the integrated project management tool or the fancy analytics dashboard.

Get it into the hands of your first users as quickly as possible. I recommend offering it for free to your first 2 to 5 clients. This initial group provides invaluable feedback and helps you uncover issues you never would have found on your own. It’s a trade: they get the product for free, and you get critical, unfiltered insights.

Worry about scalability later. Your primary concern at this stage is proving that the product works and that people want to use it. Don’t waste time prematurely optimizing your database or building a distributed microservices architecture for a handful of users. If you have a scaling problem at the MVP stage, that’s a good problem to have.

Step 2: The Feature and Monetization Push

Once your MVP is validated and you’ve confirmed people find value in your core concept, it’s time to move on to Version 1. This phase is about adding the “must-have” features and improving the user experience.

Add essential features and improve ergonomics. Think about the quality-of-life improvements that make your product more pleasant to use. This isn’t about adding every feature on your wishlist, but rather about solidifying the experience.

Now is the time to start thinking about a marketing strategy and, crucially, a pricing model. You can’t build a business if you’re not making money. Choose a price and a plan that feels fair to your users and sustainable for you.

With a potential increase in users, it’s also the right time to start monitoring everything. Set up monitoring for your servers, application performance, and user behavior. This data will be vital as you scale. Plan your architecture for the anticipated load from your marketing efforts, but don’t over-engineer it. Build what you need for the next wave, not for millions of users you don’t have yet.

Step 3: The Growth and Innovation Engine

With a stable, monetized product and a growing user base, you’ve earned the right to think bigger. Version 2 is where you can start to unleash your creativity and make significant investments.

Unleash your creativity with new features. This is the stage to explore more ambitious ideas. You have a validated foundation, a revenue stream, and a user base that can provide feedback on more complex features. Build out the big ideas you had in the beginning.

Invest heavily in marketing. With a proven product and a clear understanding of your user base, you can now confidently invest in growth. Use the data you’ve been collecting to inform your marketing and acquisition strategies.

Monitor relentlessly. As you grow, monitoring becomes even more critical. Keep a close eye on your servers, performance, and user metrics. This data will help you identify bottlenecks, understand user needs, and make informed decisions about where to invest your time and money next.

By following these steps, you’ll avoid the developer’s curse of building a perfect product for no one. Instead, you’ll create a feedback loop that guides your development, ensures you’re always building what people want, and ultimately helps you turn your idea into a successful project.