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Roadmap · Earn independently

Build and sell your own product

Opens with credits

For students and early-career engineers who want to build a small product of their own and sell it: a SaaS, a digital product such as a template or starter kit, or a mobile app. By the end you have validated a real problem, shipped a first version, set up a way to get paid that works in your country, launched it in the right places and know from your numbers whether to keep going.

Curated by Tauseef Fayyaz8 stages, 56 topics~8 months at a few hours a week
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By the end, you will be able to

  • Find a problem worth solving and test demand with interviews, a one-page smoke test and pre-sales before building
  • Ship a small first version on a stack you know, with payments that work from your country and taxes handled
  • Price it deliberately, write a clear landing page or store listing and launch within each community's rules
  • Track activation, conversion, revenue and churn, handle support and legal basics, and decide on purpose whether to keep, pivot or stop

The path

8 stages, in the order to learn them. Open one to start.

  1. 1Find a problem worth solvingStart from a painful, frequent problem that a specific group already spends time or money on, not from an idea or a technology. Every later stage, from interviews to pricing, depends on picking the right one.7 topics · ~3 weeks
    1. 1Start from problems, not ideasMost first products fail because nobody wanted them badly enough.
    2. 2Pick one customer you can reachA product for "everyone" or "small businesses" leaves you with nobody to interview and nothing specific to say.
    3. 3What you know that others do notMany people will try any obvious idea.
    4. 4Where pain shows up in publicBefore you interview anyone, look for public evidence that the problem is real.
    5. 5Reading search demandSearch demand shows what people are actively looking for, in their own words.
    6. 6Competitors are evidence, not a stop signFinding competitors is usually good news.
    7. 7Scoring ideas and choosing oneYou will end up with several possible problems.
    7 in this stageOpen this stage
  2. 2Validate before you buildFind out whether people will commit time or money before you write the product. Interviews, a one-page smoke test and pre-sales take days and give you evidence instead of hope.7 topics · ~4 weeks
    1. 1Questions that do not invite liesWhen you describe your idea, people are polite.
    2. 2Running ten problem interviewsA problem interview is a short conversation about someone's problem, not about your product.
    3. 3A one-page smoke testInterviews show that pain exists.
    4. 4Waitlists and what they proveA waitlist is a list of people who gave you their email so they hear when the product launches.
    5. 5Pre-sales: the strongest signalMoney is the clearest proof that someone wants what you are building.
    6. 6Deciding the threshold before the testBefore you run any test, write down what result counts as a pass.
    7. 7Doing it by hand firstFor many products you can deliver the result by hand before you automate it.
    7 in this stageOpen this stage
  3. Build a small first versionShip the smallest version that solves the core problem well enough that someone pays, on a stack you already know. Speed to real users beats elegance.6 topics · ~3 monthsOpens with credits
  4. Getting paidChoose how money moves from customer to you: a payment processor, a merchant of record or the app stores. Check what works from your country, who handles taxes, and how the money reaches your bank.7 topics · ~4 weeksOpens with credits
  5. PricingSet a price from the value to the customer, pick a model that matches how they get value, and avoid deals that trade long-term revenue for a quick spike.7 topics · ~2 weeksOpens with credits
  6. Position and launchSay who it is for and why it beats their current option in one sentence, build a page that says it clearly, then launch in the places your customers already gather, within each place's rules.8 topics · ~4 weeksOpens with credits
  7. Grow and measureAfter launch, growth comes from channels that compound, such as search, content, an email list and partners, and from fixing the numbers that show where customers drop away.8 topics · ~5 weeksOpens with credits
  8. Run it and decideA paid product needs support, clear legal pages and basic records. Then, on a schedule you set in advance, decide whether to keep going, change direction or stop.6 topics · ~2 weeksOpens with credits
Keep reading

6 more stages, 42 more topics, free with an account.

You have seen the open stages of the Build and sell your own product roadmap. Every topic it covers is listed above, and an account opens the rest: what each topic means, a question to check yourself, the courses, the practice and Tauseef's advice for every stage. Early access is open: sign up and your account is active shortly after.

Everything here is free to learn from. A few things, like adding a roadmap, keeping a cheat sheet or asking Tauseef a question, use credits. You get 15 when you join, your first roadmap is free, and if you are learning seriously and run out, you can ask for more. Credits only make sure the platform goes to people who are actually learning.

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