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What shipping side projects taught me about scope

6 min read
ProductIndie hacking

Cutting features that sparkle, choosing defaults users never see, and knowing when "done" is better than "novel."

Side projects reward ruthless scope cuts. The features you skip are often what ship the product on time.

Defaults nobody notices

  • Sensible empty states beat clever onboarding tours.
  • Instrument one funnel metric early—even a spreadsheet is enough.
Scope shapes
Wide figure: scope is geometry—trim corners, keep the center of mass.

When “done” wins

If users can complete the core loop, you are closer to done than any roadmap with three unprioritized epics. Read this index of posts for related notes.