Working on new projects and entering into 'the abyss'

Navigating the structure-less life of building something

It's been 1.5 months since I quit my job to start my own thing. I had to ask myself a question I've been avoiding for a while. How's it going?

Truth be told it's very up and down. Some days feel like I've made a decent amount of progress, other days (like how it's been the last few days...) I feel like I'm barely surviving. (Side note: I would not recommend analysing how much progress you've made when you're severely PMS-ing. It's just bad news for everyone).

How it's really been going

Some days I can't believe my luck I get to do this: experimenting with different ideas, building things, meeting incredible people and hopefully solving a real problem for real people. Other days I'm not sure where I'm going with my life.

Everybody tells you to trust the process. Something that you don't really want to hear when you're hitting a low, but maybe this is all part of the journey.

I came across this article that really helped me me put my finger on what I'm experiencing. The writer calls it the abyss, which I thought was an accurate representation of how I'm feeling. I have really struggled with how little progress I feel I've made. But this author had written a timeline they'd set for themselves, and within it they'd allocated a rest period. Where there were no expectations. No pressure to accomplish anything or be the best at something.

I have learned to lean into that a little bit. It's still a struggle—there are days where I really question if I have it in me to build something, given how little I've accomplished in the last 1.5 months. But I have to constantly remind myself that these things take time.

Those who have been in the same shoes often tell me that things didn't happen instantly for them—there was so much effort and intention put into every step they took. This keeps me going, but what has helped in the last couple of days is being more strict with myself in terms of goals and timeline.

So what have I been working on?

Going into this, there were two things I was sure of. I wanted to work on this problem on documentation/knowledge management, and I wanted to meet people.

Meeting people

Last year, I decided to host a dinner with friends and friends of friends, as a way to make new connections with people in the industry. If you think I'm trying very hard to avoid the term networking, I probably am. So my friend Debbie and I started running a supper club we call Thinkers & Tinkerers. The response has been positive so far, and I'm excited to do these dinners more regularly now I have more time to organise them.

Last week's dinner was the first one we ran after I left my job. The day didn't start off strong. I was absolutely drained, having had a terrible night's sleep. But as soon as people started coming, I'd completely forgotten all about my lack of sleep—there's nothing quite like sharing a meal with people you click with. It was a brilliant evening, and everyone has been saying lots of lovely things since.

I've also been going on coffee dates with different people. Every week, I try to aim to chat with one or two people. We don't always talk about work. In fact, a lot of our conversations revolve around just normal day-to-day life.

In all honesty, it takes a lot of time meeting people in person. By the time you factor in traveling time and everything else, you can easily spend half a day just meeting one person for coffee. Sometimes I wonder if I'm spending my time wisely. Do I have my priorities wrong if I'm spending more time meeting people than I am building?

I've spoken about this to a few people who have been in the same shoes as I am in now. Everyone without fail has nothing bad to say about this. To them, meeting people has always brought about exponential returns, even though they may not feel that way immediately.

What I've also learned that not everyone you'll meet is nice—and that's okay. You'll eventually run into one of those bad apples, ones who have probably made up their minds about who you are before even meeting you. They'll leave a bad taste in your mouth. But then the majority of people are nice. I've learned that those bad apples, while rare, will stick out in your memory. So I've had to remind myself that for every one bad apple, you'll meet 100 amazing ones. That's a trade-off I'm willing to take.

Building a knowledge management tool

I was so sure I wanted to work on this one particular problem about knowledge management. I'm a nerd with a love-hate relationship with documentation. For context, I'm a product designer who used to work at a B2B SaaS company.

I love writing documentation, but I don't always have the time to do this. It's not the sort of thing that gets prioritised, especially when there are a million things that need your attention all at the same time.

I set out to build a tool to make technical knowledge accessible to non-technical teams. I spent a few weeks vibe coding and exploring designs in Figma, completely separating the two.

It worked out pretty well, but there were lots of learnings on how not to get too distracted by the little things while vibe coding, and how to build something in the most efficient way (this is probably a post in itself).

I've since been working with an engineer to build something much less buggy and hopefully much more usable by actual people.

A little sneak peek of what I'm building 👉 sienna.sh

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But there's something a bit unsettling building in the B2B SaaS space. Not only is it an extremely competitive space, it also feels like you're in a big race with everybody else. Maybe this is true no matter what space you're in, but this world feels particularly saturated.

I told myself to be open to exploring other ideas, this early in the process. Then an idea came to fix a problem I've personally experienced myself: how to make clothes fit better.

Building something in fashion tech

There's something refreshing about doing something in fashion—it feels more like play rather than work. Talking to people in fashion communities also feel exciting, it's a kind of research that feels more like chit-chat than "user research". Top tip: Substack communities are an absolutely brilliant source of insights! When you're in the right community, and so long as you're genuinely interested and want to be part of that community, you'll get lots of engagement!

What initially started out as clothes alteration quickly turned into a little database of high-demand fashion brands for online shoppers to do a bit of research before they take the plunge and make a purchase. Sizing gets so confusing and wouldn't it be so nice if you wouldn't have to do so many returns?!

I intend to spend a bit more time working on this. But even the last few days I've spent working on this, I feel I've learned to stop fussing over building something from scratch and having design control over everything. Test the assumption, see if it works, before committing days and weeks building something that might not be useful.

A little sneak peek of what I'm building 👉 pointfour.in

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Goals and timeline

At the beginning of the article I mentioned that goals and timeline have been helpful. At the beginning of every week, I sit down to write down my objectives for the week. What do I want to accomplish? What does a good week look like?

Some weeks feel more purposeful than others. Some weeks I know exactly what I want to get done. Other weeks it feels like I'm just making up goals for myself, but I find that I just need to push through. It's like getting a workout in in the morning when you don't feel like it. It sets you up nicely for the day.

Timeline is a much bigger, imposing thing to think about. I don't have this nailed down yet, but I think about this more and more everyday. As much as I'm having fun building different things, I know I have to eventually make a decision on which project I want to focus on.

I have given myself some rough dates for deadlines on projects, but I think I need to write down really specific goals to make this more effective, to mimic that deadline pressure that I desperately need. It will give me some structure I think.

What to do when you're on one of those down days

Some practical tips on what to do when you're having one of those days...

Take it easy. I feel like I almost need someone to give me permission to not be productive every single minute of every day, like I have to spend every second on my computer. There are so many external factors telling us we need to be on go go go mode all the time, and it's exhausting. But I would also be lying if I were to tell you that I listen to this advice myself. I want to keep going all the time, but at the same time I have been ill maybe 5 times this year. That's probably my body's way of telling me to take things easy.

Catch up with a friend. My friend and I have become each other's accountability partner, we check in on each other regularly (or at least we try to!) to see how each other is doing. Yes this helps with keeping each other accountable, but more than anything it keeps us posted on how each other is doing. And that's been really nice.

Do something physical. Go outside, go to the gym, do some yoga. 99% of the time moving my body is exactly the cure I need to put me out of a funk.

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If you're still here... thank you. As you can see everything feels very much like a trial and error. Let's see how things go, and if they fit I'll keep going. It's a bit tricky navigating the abyss 😅 so if anyone has any tips they want to share... I definitely welcome them 🙂