Why planning your product upfront matters

“A bad plan is better than no plan at all.”

This saying has transformed how I approach building products after years of chaotic development.

My problem

I’m not a full-time indie hacker - my day job takes most of my time.

In the past, I’ve spent weeks just deciding what to build, leaving little time for actual development.

Without proper planning, I found myself:

  • Procrastinating on starting
  • Setting unrealistic goals
  • Losing motivation when progress stalled
  • Feeling stressed from lack of direction

My approach

Instead of diving straight into coding, I now dedicate time upfront to properly plan each product idea.

Think of it as creating a roadmap before starting a journey.

During planning, I:

  • Write a clear 2-3 sentence description to capture the core idea
  • Create a detailed memo document

I learned about memos from Sahil Lavingia - it’s a simple but powerful tool for organizing thoughts.

The memo answers key questions:

  • What problem am I actually solving?
  • Who benefits from the solution?
  • How will this make money?

That’s it. No fancy stuff.

This approach helps me:

  1. Start building immediately instead of wasting days wondering “what should I build?”
  2. Make clearer decisions even when stressed about shipping

Will my plans be perfect? Hell no.

Will they change? Probably.

But having a rough direction beats staring at a blank screen when it’s time to build.

Memo template

# [Product name] - Memo

## Problem

- What problem are you solving?
- Who are you solving for?
- Why am I solving the problem?
- Why now?
- What’s confusing?
- What’s boring?

## Solution

- What are you building?
- What are you not building?
- What’s awesome?

## Thesis

- What is your unique perspective?
- What key assumptions are you making?
- What evidence supports your thesis?

## Market

- How are you going to make money?