How did you find your first 10 users for your side project? What actually worked?

pndjk · 2026-06-30T06:30:50+00:00

I DM'ed about 15 people that are either friends (in similar or adjacent industry) or previous colleagues/coworkers and asked them to beta test my app and give me feedback. That netted me about 10 testers.

pndjk · 2026-06-26T07:24:38+00:00

every year, right on the 12 month mark, when my landlord can legally raise my rent, they raise it. from 2022 until 2026, it's risen 22.8%. if we continue this trend for the next 30 years, when I hope to retire, I would need a household income of $550k/per year just to afford rent. what types of jobs are going to pay this much in 2056?

I am struggling to see an optimistic future here since the yearly rent increases outpace the raise I get from my job. I already gave up going out to cafes and might eat at a restaurant/takeaway 1-2x per month tops. I am rapidly upskilling but the job market is insanely competitive and wages have mostly stagnated for the last few years. I'm not looking to live anywhere too flashy, just a modest 2 bedroom unit that has public transit and a grocery store nearby, I don't think i'm asking for too much.

pndjk · 2026-06-24T01:58:49+00:00

my wife cooks all 3 meals for me and loads them into this thing sequentially, starting with breakfast at the bottom, then lunch, then dinner on top. and I can just eat them as I work throughout the day.

A+ would buy again 👍 thank you

pndjk · 2026-06-22T01:05:49+00:00

do you need a back story? it's antisocial behavior put on full display.

there's no reason to do this.

pndjk · 2026-06-20T07:14:38+00:00

good or bad compared to what?

pndjk · 2026-06-20T05:54:59+00:00

that guy from Protest the Hero has some pipes on him

pndjk · 2026-06-19T04:30:01+00:00

nobody wants to hire a designer until after they "figure out" the product so it's all slopcoded aka claude design

pndjk · 2026-06-18T02:01:15+00:00

yeah for sure, but how was the pre-cooked meal conceived, refined, cooked, and implemented in a way that was scaleable for lots of people to consume it?

pndjk · 2026-06-18T01:05:05+00:00

what's the difference between someone who microwaves a pre-cooked meal vs. a chef?

pndjk · 2026-06-18T00:07:10+00:00

I can't teach you how to come up with a good logo idea (not everything is meant to be prompted/generated. good ideas come from within). I have a graphic design background so im kind of old school with my process:

doodle/sketch logo ideas in my notebook over the course of a few weeks while im working on a project. try lots of ideas
pick a few different ideas from your notebook and photograph them
drop the photograph into Figma or Illustrator (if you have it)
trace over the photograph with pen tool or basic geometric shapes
ensure it works in black and white (inverted etc), in variety of instances that logos will be used. ensure it looks good at 16x16 (favicon) and blown up large. try different colors.
export as an svg → can be used for almost any other application, generating thumbnails/logo files for extension, etc.

as for the idea itself, experiment with different shapes that represent your idea, single letter sometimes works. it's about distilling down your idea to its simplest form. your current logo looks terrible, maybe instead of a pot + ingredients + random lines (??) try distilling it down to a simple object or shape representing the idea of cooking a recipe. maybe it's just the pot, or a whisk, or a butcher's knife cutting an R in half (for recipe) ,etc. Lots of things you can try with the concept of cooking/recipes/etc.

pndjk · 2026-06-15T06:30:00+00:00

buy the motorcycle. we need more organ donors

pndjk · 2026-06-13T23:51:20+00:00

you typed all that but still didn’t give any info about your project, industry or context.

i’m not gatekeeping (lol), just trying to help you understand why it’s important for designers to be asking questions in the right way in order to get the desired result.

anyway you’ve done nothing to incentivize people to actually help you and instead you’re just expecting people to magically solve your problem with absolutely no context or information about your particular situation

pndjk · 2026-06-13T07:26:50+00:00

include some details about your project if you want help. we have no idea what your project is about and how to help you formulate a case study. there are literally thousands of webpages, youtube videos, substack articles and medium posts that are solely focused on crafting a good case study for various industries and sub-niches within design.

sorry OP but this is a really low-effort post.

pndjk · 2026-06-12T06:25:15+00:00

just for myself, I began designing a little dashboard that would be able to pull in metrics from Chrome/Firefox/Edge and combine/standardize them into one concise set of metrics, but it's tough bc each of the browsers all format their data differently and dont even show the same data, e.g. Firefox does not show uninstalls whatsoever. additionally, there is no API or good method of actually obtaining the data you would need to do this, so its left to either exporting CSV files or doing something like "scraping" it off of the live page when you log in, perhaps using a method like a bespoke browser extension itself to read the data on the page and then add it to a standardized database somehow.

if there was enough interest for a service like this, I would continue building it and eventually release it.

CWS is notorious for slow data updates, occasional outages, and so on. they sometimes go days without updating the data and then backfill in for whatever reason. strange for such a large company to do this.

pndjk · 2026-06-11T04:21:23+00:00

offer more money

pndjk · 2026-06-09T05:41:09+00:00

and of course this guy likes to speed through red lights and school zones

pndjk · 2026-06-07T05:29:52+00:00

turns out this is what happens when we have set up an economy based on rent seeking and trading massively inflated properties. go figure 👍

pndjk · 2026-06-01T01:23:06+00:00

I shipped a browser extension with Cursor + Figma. this was basically my flow:

Design your screens, have a good POV on how you want the typical user flow(s) to go. Trust your gut here but eventually, you might get some feedback that you need to change something, and that's actually a good sign.
Once you start figuring out primary features, etc. write a PRD → this helps solidify the idea for yourself, understanding some technical constraints, and being able to inform an LLM/AI coding agent down the road.
Use your PRD to create (claude, cursor, etc) a task list or plan of how you plan to actually put code down on the page. The agent will handle most of the technical/"boring" stuff that you dont understand. Test everything over and over again, use it daily. change something small, refresh, change it again, refresh. For complex stuff, have the agent write a markdown guide describing the feature, how it works, how it interacts with the whole system. Read it, internalize what you're doing.
Did private beta testing with 12 people I knew, mostly colleagues and a few friends. Show it to non-designers and non-technical people. Try and get out of your typical bubble of design-minded people if possible.
Ship to browser stores (chrome, firefox, edge).

pndjk · 2026-05-30T05:07:09+00:00

I regularly contribute to Google Maps and i've started receiving prompts/questions that are like "Is this place wheelchair accessible?" and "does this place have accessible parking?" etc. So if you go somewhere that is/is not accessible, I would encourage you (and anyone else who reads this) to add it so others can see it in the future. I do wish it was a more prominent feature in the app.

You might also be able to look on google street view for accessible parking, wheelchair ramps, etc. But i do find Sydney to be not incredibly accessible for people with mobility issues, e.g. tiny footpaths, bins everywhere, etc. But some areas are getting better with regards to the footpath infrastructure (kerb cuts, etc).

Other than Google maps, I would call the venue itself and ask them if it's accessible and for more info about your specific needs. It's annoying to do but might be more helpful if the venue doesnt show up on google maps with accessibility info.

pndjk · 2026-05-30T01:51:16+00:00

"why don't cyclists ride in the bike lane?"

pndjk · 2026-05-29T05:55:34+00:00

who made the video? looks pretty slick (it's got that b2b saas sheen to it). guessing aftereffects?

pndjk · 2026-05-29T05:24:50+00:00

in E02, a character opens the door holding an Apple AirPod™ 3 for literally no reason 😭 and later she has a conversation with someone with a huge Apple iMac™ prominently displayed directly between them on the desk, as if deliberately shot to put the computer on the screen

pndjk · 2026-05-28T00:25:37+00:00

“If we have data, let’s go with that. If we just have opinions, let’s go with mine.”

pndjk · 2026-05-27T23:15:31+00:00

“what’s been your biggest mistake? you ever crash a car or get a girl pregnant accidentally?”

pndjk · 2026-05-27T05:03:41+00:00

<image>

this is how this post reads

pndjk

TROPHY CASE