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Comment by shocks | Hacker News Reader

I don't think this is a good list for a side project.

Every side project I have ever attempted has taken me ages and never got anywhere. Saying things like localisation need to be done before your MVP ready is nuts.

I'm working on a side project right now. I've tried to learn all my lessons from other attempts. It's just a basic website (landing page). Between building that, trying to sort out product, make a plan, etc - there is barely any time left... I have a full time 9-6 job, and a two hour (total) commute. There's hardly any time left at the end of the day, squeezing out an hours work each day is hard enough. Localisation would never be on my list.

Having the time to check each one of these points is a luxury most side projects can't afford.

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Ya I agree. I think there are some basic sanity checks that are easy to forget in the rush to get shit done before launching a page. My minimum viable checklist:

1) Does it work in a bunch of sizes on laptop/desktop monitor?

2) Is it readable/usable on my iPhone?

3) Does www.mysite.com and mysite.com work?

4) Do I list contact info for someone to reach out to me?

5) Do I have some way of capturing signups?

6) Do I have a google analytics snippet working?

7) Is my static content behind a CDN so I don't go down in an easily avoidable manner?

I like to leave this checklist open ended since my definition of 'working' on mobile vs. desktop depends on the project. If I'm throwing an event, it's very important that people are able to register on mobile...if I'm launching an e-commerce store, they might not need to buy but just add their email address.

I like the list... Just think of it less in terms of "have I done this?" and more in terms of "have I thought about this and made sure it isn't important to my project?"

I agree I would never launch anything if this was the standard, however, this is a good check list if it's a 'side company'.

Not really, I know a bunch of companies that would fail lots on this list but are making millions.

For a side project you'd probably be better off putting much more basic things like 'does it work on mobile', 'do the email addresses listed actually work', 'is robots.txt still set to disallow google' and 'have you actually gone through a whole order yet' on there. Seriously.

I still don't think I agree, sorry. You might want to make something as good as possible so people are more likely to pay for it, but all the time it's not launched nobody is paying for it at all.

"..this is a good check list if it's a 'side company'"

That's actually a better term! It makes a difference whether you are building the side project as a creative hobby (to develop new skills etc.) or in the hopes of turning it into a startup.

back in the day we used to call that a "lifestyle business"

Eh, not really. A lifestyle business is your main source of income. It's not a side project. It's just not a startup because there is no massive growth expectation.

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