When you're building a product as a solo developer, it's easy to always think about the next feature.
I used to think that adding more functionality was the main way to make PromoHub better.
But as the platform has grown, I've started looking at development differently.
More Features Don't Always Mean a Better Product
PromoHub is a discovery platform for communities, creators, websites, projects, businesses and more.
There are always new things I could build.
But adding another feature doesn't necessarily solve the problems users are actually experiencing.
Sometimes the better improvement is much smaller:
- Making a page load faster
- Improving navigation
- Making content easier to discover
- Fixing a confusing UI element
- Improving mobile responsiveness
- Making an existing feature easier to understand
These changes aren't always as exciting as launching something new, but they can have a bigger impact on the actual experience.
Watching How People Use the Platform
I've also started paying more attention to real user behavior.
Instead of only asking:
"What should I build next?"
I'm asking:
"What are users already trying to do?"
Looking at page visits, navigation, registrations, posts and other activity can reveal where the product needs improvement.
That information is much more useful than simply building features because they sound interesting.
What I'm Taking Away
I'm still going to build new features for PromoHub.
But now I'm trying to balance new functionality with improving what already exists.
A good product isn't necessarily the one with the most features.
It's the one where the existing features are useful, understandable and easy to use.
That's something I'm continuing to learn while building PromoHub.
[Add PromoHub screenshot here]
What do you focus on more when building your own projects: adding features or improving existing ones?
