Find your next move
One question about where you are, one optional question about what’s in the way, and a straight answer about what to do next, including when the answer is that you don’t need to hire anyone yet.
Step 1 of 3
Where are you right now?
Pick whichever sentence sounds most like your situation. There is no wrong answer and nothing to fill in.
Step 2 of 3 (optional)
What’s actually in the way?
This adjusts the answer below. Skip it and the answer still stands.
Step 3 of 3
Your next move
Where you are
You have a clear picture of the business and no picture of the product. That’s normal and it’s not the problem. The problem starts if you hire someone to build before you’ve decided what the first version actually is.
You also said: It won’t scale
Worth checking whether it actually won’t scale, or whether it’s slow for a reason that has nothing to do with scale. Those get fixed very differently, and the second one is much cheaper. A security and performance review is a defined 3–4 week sprint.
What matters now
- Confirm the diagnosis first
- Write down the one thing a user must be able to do for this to be worth anything
- Talk to five people who’d use it, not five people who like the idea
- Work out what you’d need to see to know it’s working
What can wait
- A developer
- A tech stack decision
- Designs, a brand, a domain
- Anything with a price tag
Common risk at this point
Paying to build the full vision before anyone has confirmed the first slice of it is worth using.
What I’d suggest
Nothing yet. You don’t need to hire a developer at this stage, and if you asked me to quote this today I’d tell you the same thing. Come back when you can name the one thing your product must do.
One next action
Write that one sentence. If you want a second opinion on it, send it to me. That’s free and takes me ten minutes.