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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.

  1. I have an idea. Nothing exists yet.
  2. I’m testing whether people want this.
  3. I know what I want. I don’t know how to build it or what it costs.
  4. Something is being built. It’s slower or messier than expected.
  5. It’s live. I need it to do more, or work better.
  6. I genuinely don’t know.

Step 2 of 3 (optional)

What’s actually in the way?

This adjusts the answer below. Skip it and the answer still stands.

Skip this step (none of these fit)

Step 3 of 3

Your next move

Where you are

You’re doing the right work. The trap here is deciding you need a real product in order to keep testing, when usually you need a smaller test.

What matters now

  • Get evidence someone will pay, commit, or repeat, not that they think it’s a good idea
  • Use the cheapest thing that produces that evidence: a form, a spreadsheet, a manual process
  • Note every feature people ask for, and don’t build any of them yet

What can wait

  • Custom development
  • A mobile app
  • Accounts, logins, dashboards
  • Anything that needs a backend

Common risk at this point

Confusing enthusiasm for demand. People are generous with encouragement and stingy with their time and money. Only the second kind of yes counts.

What I’d suggest

Still nothing paid. No-code tools are genuinely the right answer at this stage, and they’ll become the wrong answer later. That’s fine: that’s what they’re for.

One next action

Decide what result would make you confident enough to spend $6,000. Then go get it.