Day 168: Week 25 Plan

status

Feeling normal again! Yippee.

Week 24

I added some powerful functionality to Browserflow this week, namely the ability to run multiple flows at the same time and run loops. Despite making those major changes, I still feel like I’m working very slowly compared to previous weeks. It feels like the work I did should have been able to be accomplished in 2-3 days rather than the whole week. And so it goes.

Snippets

  • Done (Planned)

    • Browserflow

      • Create form for beta testers to sign up for waitlist
      • Support while loops in a flow
      • Support if/else conditionals in a flow
      • Support running multiple flows simultaneously

    • Show & Tell

      • Organize last session
      • Decide future plans

  • Done (Unplanned)

    • Support for each loops in a flow
    • Added NOTIFY action to trigger a notification

  • Dropped

    • Support running flows with custom triggers (e.g. visiting a site, time of day)
    • (Stretch) Support running flows in the background

Week 25

I’m super stoked to get Browserflow into people’s hands, but I keep finding bugs that are dealbreakers for providing a usable experience. Trying to figure out when to start sharing Browserflow feels tricky because while I don’t want to cover a surface so large that it prevents me from shipping for a super long time, I need to add enough functionality to actually make Browserflow useful.

I definitely have a tendency to be a perfectionist when it comes to product, and Browserflow is an especially challenging product to build in that regard because there’s so much that it does. When I think about the TYPE action for instance, I know that there are some cases where it doesn’t work correctly, and there’s a draw towards making it work just right before getting it out. But I know that it makes far more sense to start collecting feedback when the product is good enough because it will accelerate progress when I can identify patterns with how other people are using it.

Overall, I’m getting more excited by the day about Browserflow. The potential here seems incredible, and I feel like I’ve identified an area with a ton of unmet demand. The response I’m getting from friends feels qualitatively different from the other products I’ve built — they’re also super excited about it and want to know when they can start using it.

Browserflow hits all the criteria that I find appealing for an indie business:

  • Something I’d personally use
  • Something my friends would use
  • Something businesses would pay for

Last week, I focused on power out of the power/reliability/usability trifecta. This week, I’m going to work on reliability. The API is definitely powerful enough to enable a variety of useful flows, and before I share Browserflow with beta users, I want to make sure the app is rock solid in terms of its fundamental reliability. Then when I start onboarding people onto Browserflow next week, I’ll pay attention to where people get confused and improve usability.

Snippets

  • Browserflow

    • Fix bug where items are processed multiple times in FOR_EACH loop
    • Fix critical bug where form text goes out of sync with storage
    • Build and test example flow: Dismissing YouTube’s “are you there” prompt
    • Build and test example flow: Downloading a list of users I follow on Instagram
    • Build and test example flow: Unfollowing everyone on Instagram