What I learned solo bootstrapping 8 software products

appreciate it! honestly that's a questions heaps of people ask me and I don't have a direct answer to it (yet). I'm not a designer and also not a developer. I taught myself how to code because I wanted to make cool apps and I taught myself design because I loved how some apps "stand out" and the rest just looks like Microsoft Office 1996.

When I say taught myself design what I actually mean is just observing people/companies that do great design for years. It's all about training your eyes to differentiate what looks "good" vs bad or in other words developing "taste".

For years every time I come across a website or any design really I like I bookmark it and give it specific attributes about what I like and dislike. I have hundreds of bookmarks on Dribbble, X, the web, instagram etc. Do this long enough and you start to create patterns of ideas in your head. It's almost like I already know what kind of design my next project should look like, I'm just waiting for the right project opportunity to apply it if that makes any sense.

One really often overlooked advice I could give is to take design inspiration from things outside your specific use case. If you are building a web-based SaaS, simply also taking inspiration from mobile apps helps you make better designs already. I would go even further and look at music album covers, IG ads, museum artefacts you name it.

While writing this I realize that perhaps the single most important thing to making "good" designs is being passionate about it. I love coding and I genuinely love coming up with designs for my projects. It's perhaps going the little extra mile that it takes. Hope that helps a little!

Dom from the video here. Fair point. Let me TLDR the lessons:

• Launch early and iterate • Passion matters • Market before launch • Product-founder fit • No marketing, no customers • Repurpose failed projects • Curation sells • Digital products take time • Side projects don’t need profit and keep you motivated • Swim with trends • Growth takes time • Iterate relentlessly • B2B > B2C for bootstrappers • Scratch your own itch • Great ideas come from problems