Do less, so you can do it better - Indie Hackers
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Founders, this is just a friendly reminder to do fewer things.
When I started Indie Hackers. I was doing one thing and one thing only: interviews. The scope was tiny.
As a result, I could do a really good job, because that's where 100% of my energy went. I had no other distractions or responsibilities. I had all the time in the world to iterate on the design, the questions, the guests, etc. Other interview websites couldn't compete, because their founders were distracted.
Nowadays, the scope of IH has expanded massively. It's harder to keep up. If I'm focusing on the podcast, it means I'm neglecting coding the website, posting on the forum, iterating on the interviews, responding to emails, tweeting, etc. I like to think I do a decent job, but it's impossible to do the best job.
There will always be the temptation to expand your scope. And I don't mean to imply that you never should. Sometimes it's the best option. I'm glad I decided to start the podcast and the forum. I'd do it again, especially knowing I'd eventually find some amazing people to help me out.
But in the earliest of early days, it's almost always the wrong choice.
It's tempting to think you should be on YouTube and Twitter and Facebook and doing SEO and everything else. It's tempting to think you need to add features X, Y, Z, and A, B, and C. You will hear from every book and every corner of the web that you're not doing enough things.
They're usually wrong. You're probably doing too many things already.
The world is already full of billions of videos, books, movies, stores, websites, apps, and product features. That's more than anyone has time to consume, and most of it is mediocre. People aren't craving more mediocre things. What they want is a small number of really great things. Producing great things requires focus. Focus means saying no to good things, because they get in the way of doing great things.
Do less, so you can do it better!
Courtland Allen
posted to
Product Development
on March 2, 2020
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20
You should write a book sometime. Someone had to say it, so I did.
tmartty
6 years ago
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36
Good example of a tempting thing that I probably shouldn't focus on 😉
csallen
6 years ago
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Probably... yet.
tmartty
6 years ago
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Haha :D
ayyappa99
6 years ago
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All important points to remember as the chapter headings.
prakis
6 years ago
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15
People aren't craving more mediocre things. What they want is a small number of really great things. Producing great things requires focus. Focus means saying no to good things, because they get in the way of doing great things.
I'm going to put that on my wall.
DocM20
6 years ago
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I can't agree more!
neelptl2602
6 years ago
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Would you take you own advice due?
It's wonderful all that this has become.
Personally I use the forums, the podcasts doesn't resonate with me much 🤷.
I'd say as wonderful as the forums are, they are mostly fed by the people they attracted, the curation, participation etc.
In my eyes and I think others expressed it a bit as well in a nicer way, it's Inspite of the custom coded slow site it lives on, not because...
Would you consider just dumping it and moving to some well performing off the shelf open source system with minimal customisation?
Honestly you probably shouldn't be coding anything for the forums, there is no special secret sauce functionality here that adds value over a competing forum in terms of system. The community work is worth it etc...
I would also question if the spin offs of other discussion methods spinner out should give you the hint to that, the core system is less than what people are expecting...
When you would wean of coding, you wouldn't be as attached and would possibly consider connecting complementary systems that would actually add considerable value...
hatkyinc
6 years ago
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YES!! 🙌💯
I've scaled my business down to 4 essential things:
outbound sales (daily)
developing strategic partnerships (daily)
participating on LinkedIn and IH (once a week)
writing articles/blogs (once every 2 months)
That's it. No inbound marketing. Need to get processes and systems working so they scale. Then I'll add inbound (paid and organic) marketing.
Since simplifying to this point, things have moved ahead by leaps and bounds. This heavy focus on sales and partnerships is temporary -- to force intense and early growth.
This setup feels really good. It's removed a lot of pressure and I can clearly see where I'm headed.
Less is truly more. 👍👍
AnitaToth
6 years ago
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Focus thats great pitch, at what point do you think attentions be diversified?
Wisdom_chris
2 years ago
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💯%
charlierward
6 years ago
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Very wise words. Thanks!
RayanS
3 years ago
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Spot on!!
Your words serve as a powerful...