Hi Friends,

Two weeks ago in my 2nd issue The Little Wins, I shared how I launched my chrome extension Reflex Blocker on ProductHunt after I was so close to giving up on it.

Well, last Thursday it happened again. Four months ago, I started working on my first open-source project Moufette, a tool to capture users’ and visitors’ feedback. I was inspired by PostHog - a VC backed startup - and their COSS (Commercial Open Source Software) business model.

I worked on Moufette for 2 months and I was really excited about it. When I started, I built the MVP very fast and I shared it on IndieHackers and some other forms but I didn't get the traction I was hoping for. I didn't know what I should do next and slowly, the inevitable happened and my excitement faded away.

Thursday of last week was my deadline to decide what to do with the project. I abandoned it for almost 2 months and it was the time to either create a plan and continue working on it or kill it and move on. I was too focused on the competition and thought the idea of Moufette is doomed. My head was full of doubts. I went on Twitter and asked people: “would you still try to build something if there is already something like it in the market?”. The replies I got were really inspiring and eye-opening. Then I had a fuck-it moment and decided to share Moufette on HackerNews.

It didn’t take long before my post made it to the first page! Got 70 upvotes and many nice and encouraging comments. Moreover, Moufette’s Github repo jumped from 20 stars to 238, people joined the slack channel and some started using it with the projects! It was a mind-blowing moment 🤯. It was all pointing to the fact that I didn’t do enough to validate the idea and it is too early to make any final decision.

In the last 3 days, I learned very valuable lessons I want to share with you:

1. If you are afraid your MVP is not good enough to launch then it’s THE TIME to launch!
2. Never quit after the first MVP.
3. Focusing too much on competitors is stupid and demotivating
4. Innovation can be in the implementation not just the core idea

So, how am I going to apply these lessons with Moufette?

1. Talk to at least 10 customers to practice customer interviews.
2. Iterate with at least another 2 MVP versions.
3. Learn from the competition, don't focus on it.

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p.s: if you want to help me validate an idea and practice customer interviews, please fill this form. You can interview me for your product as well :)​

Have a great week! See you next Sunday,

Jamal

Quote of the Week

"I see a lot of people give up on their ideas too soon. They launch an MVP and it doesn’t work. They go, “Well, I tested it and it didn’t work,” and they give up. That’s wrong. That’s always wrong, because all that proved is that that particular version of the product didn’t work the particular way you marketed it.

Whereas if you talk to people first, in person, you’re like, “Okay. That MVP didn’t work but I know for a fact, 1,000%, they care. I know this matters.” And that makes it, for me, a lot easier to keep throwing away versions of products and looking for the correct solution."
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- Rob Fitzpatrick talking on IndieHackers Podcast episode 154

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