Product Development
Simple Wins
The simpler product often beats the feature-rich competitor. Here's why simplicity is a competitive advantage, not a limitation.
Builder's Journey
Product Development
Practical insights on building and launching software products. From ideation to development to marketing and sales, covering the full product lifecycle.
15 articles • Practical tutorials and insights
Practical insights on the full product lifecycle—from initial idea to launched product and beyond. These articles cover ideation techniques, validation approaches, development strategies, launch tactics, and post-launch growth activities. Learn how to decide what to build, validate ideas quickly, ship iteratively, gather meaningful feedback, and prioritize improvements. All guidance is based on real experience building XLNavigator and other products, including both smart decisions and costly mistakes. Discover approaches that work for solo founders with limited resources and time.
Product Development
Feedback That Matters vs. Feedback That Doesn't
Not all user feedback is equal. Some leads you forward; some leads you in circles. Here's how to filter signal from noise.
Product Development
Automate the Boring Stuff
Manual work doesn't scale. Find the repetitive tasks eating your time and eliminate them.
Product Development
Analytics You'll Actually Use
Most founders track everything and learn nothing. Here are the few metrics that actually matter.
Product Development
Security for Solo Founders
You can't ignore security, but you can't afford a security team either. Here's what actually matters.
Product Development
Technical Debt Is Fine
Perfectionism kills products. Sometimes messy code that ships is better than clean code that doesn't.
Product Development
Charge More
You're probably undercharging. Most solo founders are. Here's the uncomfortable case for raising your prices.
Product Development
Pricing Is a Feature
Most solo founders underprice out of fear. But pricing isn't just a number—it's a signal. Here's how to think about it.
Product Development
Your First $1,000
The milestone that matters most. Your first $1,000 in revenue is harder than your first $10,000—and more meaningful.
Product Development
How to Validate Without Building Anything
Most builders skip this step and regret it. Talk to potential users before you write a line of code—here's exactly how.
Product Development
The Idea Isn't the Hard Part
Everyone has ideas. Notebooks full of them. The difference between builders and dreamers isn't the quality of the idea—it's what happens next.
Product Development
Support Is Product Development
Every support ticket is a bug report. Treat support as product research, and your product will get better faster.
Product Development
Your Onboarding Is Broken
The first 5 minutes determine whether users stay. Most onboarding fails because it teaches features instead of delivering value.
Product Development
The Art of Saying No
You can't build everything. You shouldn't build everything. Here's how to decline feature requests without losing users.
Product Development
Every Feature Has a Cost
That feature request seems simple. It's not. Every feature you add comes with hidden costs—here's how to account for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What stage of product development do you focus on?
We cover the full lifecycle: ideation, validation, development, launch, and growth. Articles include lessons from building XLNavigator and other products.