Building Dogear Taught Me to Validate Before I Ship
Two weeks ago, I did something brave and slightly foolish: I announced my iOS app, Dogear, on Twitter/X.
I hit “post” with all the confidence of someone who’d just shipped a product into the world. Then I watched the replies roll in.
The response? Let’s call it… brutally honest.
People weren’t mean; they were just unimpressed. The vibe was less “This is amazing!” and more “Cool idea, but… why would I use this?”
Meanwhile, the app was already under review with Apple. I had a choice:
- Wait for approval, launch something I wasn’t proud of, and hope it magically finds an audience.
- Or pull it, go back to the drawing board, and try to build something people actually want.
I chose option two.
The uncomfortable truth
Here’s what I learned the hard way:
- Announcing early is great.
- Announcing the wrong thing is just expensive.
Twitter/X announcement posts
My initial version...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to hackernoon.com. To see the full text click HERE
