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Show Notes
Introduction
- Scope creep is very common in client work or large team projects
- Also plagues personal projects
- After the initial spark of an idea, the excitement of something new to work on can easily cloud a developer’s vision causing them to miss:
- Superfluous features: features that will take time to make, but not contribute to the idea’s main goal
- Scaling issues: how are we going to moderate all this user-generated content, where is all this data going to be stored?
- Difficulty level: It’s easy to believe all the features will be “easy” to develop when you’re just in the idea stage
- When we made Clicks to Riches, we had a game developer friend help us plan out the project by making GDD (Game Design Document) that housed what the game was going to be in it’s purest form
- Most importantly (for me anyway) it had a wishlist section, where good ideas were written down, but not admitted into the main document - meaning that version 1.0 of the game was not going to have these features - it was effectively defining an MVP
- Another very common personal project is a blog, or a content site, that will leverage organic SEO to drive traffic to affiliate marketing, or on-page ads - usually to serve as some passive income for an individual (or small writing team)
- It’s common to want to cover as many topics as possible, but the experts almost unanimously think we should niche down to a target audience - to help not only SEO but also scope of work
How to prevent scope creep in personal projects
Defining a Solid MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
- Establishing the core features and functionalities of your project ensures you don’t overbuild from the start. This allows you to stay focused on what matters most.
- Focus on Core Value: The MVP should deliver the core functionality that solves the main problem your project aims to address. Everything else can be added later. Ask yourself, “What’s the one thing this project needs to do for it to be considered a success?”
- Keep It Lean: Strip away any non-essential features. The goal is to launch with the minimum set of features that makes your project usable, then iterate from there. Avoid the temptation to add features that aren’t critical at this stage.
- Validate Quickly (after initial releases): By releasing a lean version of your project early, you can quickly test whether it meets your goals or audience needs (if applicable). This allows you to gather feedback, adjust your approach, and iterate before investing too much time or effort.
- Reduce Complexity: Focusing on an MVP helps you avoid overcomplicating things, which is a common cause of scope creep. Sticking to a simple set of features ensures that you don’t overwhelm yourself with too many moving parts or dependencies.
- Establish Clear Criteria: Define what success looks like for your MVP. Set clear, measurable goals (e.g., functionality, performance, or user experience) that will indicate when the MVP is complete and ready to be launched or tested.
- Prioritize Functionality over Polish: While it’s important to make your MVP functional and user-friendly, don’t waste time on perfecting every detail. Focus on delivering value through functionality, and save aesthetic improvements and optimizations for later.
- Plan for Iteration: The MVP is just the starting point. Once you’ve launched or completed the core version, you can plan updates, improvements, and additional features based on feedback and testing. This keeps the project evolving without overwhelming yourself initially.
- Prevents Perfectionism: Many personal projects get stalled due to perfectionism—trying to make everything flawless before launch. The MVP mindset encourages you to release early, even if it’s not perfect, and improve over time.
- Time and Resource Efficiency: By focusing on building the minimum viable version first, you conserve time and resources. You’re less likely to get bogged down in unnecessary work and more likely to see your project reach completion.
- Encourages Forward Momentum: By defining and sticking to an MVP, you create a realistic target that you can achieve within a reasonable timeframe. Completing and launching the MVP builds momentum and motivates you to keep working on future versions.
Niching Down
- Instead of trying to make a project that appeals to everyone, narrow down your audience or problem space to reduce unnecessary features.
- Define a Clear Audience: Rather than building a product that tries to please everyone, focus on a specific group of users or a niche audience. A well-defined audience helps you stay focused on what’s important to that group and ignore features that don’t serve them.
- Solve a Specific Problem: Instead of addressing a broad range of problems, identify a single, specific problem to solve. This gives your project a clear direction and makes it easier to filter out unnecessary features or distractions.
- Limit the Scope: By narrowing down the project’s scope, you reduce the number of features you need to build. This keeps the project manageable and focused, helping you avoid the common trap of trying to do too much at once.
- Focus on Core Features for the Niche: Build features that directly serve your niche’s needs. Don’t add generic or unrelated features that may seem useful but don’t align with your core purpose. The more specific your focus, the fewer unnecessary features you’ll feel compelled to add.
- Avoid Feature Overload: When you try to appeal to a wide audience, you’re more likely to feel the need to include extra features to cover various use cases. Niching down allows you to concentrate on only the features that matter most to your specific audience or goal.
- Maintain Simplicity: Niching down allows you to simplify both the project and its functionality. You don’t need to create complex or multifunctional solutions if you’re addressing a focused problem. Simplicity is a key factor in preventing scope creep.
- Reduce Decision Fatigue: When you niche down, the number of decisions you need to make reduces significantly. You’re not constantly weighing which features might appeal to different users or industries, so your choices become clearer and more straightforward.
- Gain Deeper Expertise: Focusing on a niche allows you to develop a deeper understanding of your audience’s needs or the problem you’re solving. This depth of knowledge helps you build exactly what’s needed without wasting time on features that don’t add real value.
- Stay Aligned with Your Vision: Niching down forces you to stay aligned with the original vision for your project. If you find yourself tempted to expand the project’s scope, ask whether the new idea fits within your niche. If it doesn’t, set it aside for another time or project.
- Easier to Market and Test: With a niche project, it’s easier to test your product and market it. You’re not trying to appeal to everyone, so you can focus your testing and marketing efforts on a smaller, more relevant group, which also helps you refine your project without adding unnecessary features.
- Encourages Iterative Development: Niching down gives you the opportunity to start small and expand only if necessary. Once you’ve successfully delivered a product that serves your niche, you can add features or expand your audience in future iterations without overcomplicating the initial version.
- Helps Set Clear Boundaries: When you know exactly what your niche is, it’s easier to set boundaries for your project. You can confidently say “no” to ideas that don’t fit within your defined focus, helping you avoid scope creep and stay on track.
Prioritizing Features
- Use a system like MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have) to prioritize features and prevent adding unnecessary extras.
- Must have: These are the non-negotiable features. Without them, the project would not function as intended. In a personal project, this could be the core functionality or the unique selling point that you’re trying to build.
- Should have: These features are important but not critical for the project to work. They add value and improve the user experience but can be postponed if time or resources become tight.
- Could have: These are nice-to-have features that would enhance the project but are not essential. They’re the bells and whistles that can be included if everything else goes smoothly, but they won’t break the project if left out.
- Won't have: These features are consciously excluded, either because they don’t fit the current scope or because they may distract from the main goal. It’s important to be firm about what won't make it into the project to avoid overcommitting yourself.
Establishing Milestones
- Break the project into smaller, achievable milestones. This keeps you on track and helps you assess whether additional features are really needed.
- Break Down the Project: Divide your project into a series of smaller tasks or phases. Each milestone should represent a specific achievement or chunk of work that moves you closer to the end goal. This makes the project feel less overwhelming and helps you stay on track.
- Set Clear and Achievable Goals: Each milestone should have a clear, defined goal. For example, one milestone could be completing the user authentication system, while another could be setting up the main user interface. The clearer and more specific your goals, the easier it will be to stay focused.
- Prioritize Milestones: Order your milestones based on priority, focusing on completing essential features first (i.e., your MVP). This way, you can deliver the most important parts of the project early, and if scope creep threatens to slow you down later, you’ve already built the core.
- Keep Milestones Small and Manageable: Avoid creating milestones that are too big or too vague. Instead, aim for smaller, manageable tasks that can be completed within a short timeframe. This not only keeps the project moving forward but also gives you a sense of accomplishment as you complete each milestone.
- Create Logical Phases: Group related milestones together into phases. For example, you might have a “Core Functionality” phase, followed by a “User Interface” phase, and then a “Testing and Feedback” phase. Structuring your project in logical phases makes it easier to see progress and stay organized.
- Set Deadlines for Each Milestone: Even though personal projects may not have external deadlines, setting internal deadlines for each milestone can help keep you accountable. Having a timeline to work toward will prevent you from spending too much time on any one task and keep the project moving forward.
- Measure Progress: Regularly check your progress against your milestones. This will help you see whether you're on track and give you a clear sense of what’s left to do. It also helps you catch scope creep early if you notice new tasks sneaking into milestones.
- Evaluate and Adjust: As you work through your milestones, you may find that some goals need to be adjusted. Periodically review your milestones and adjust them if needed to reflect any changes in your project’s direction or scope. Just be careful not to let unnecessary features slip in during these revisions.
- Celebrate Small Wins: Milestones offer an opportunity to celebrate progress, even if it’s incremental. Completing each milestone gives you a sense of accomplishment and keeps you motivated to continue working. Recognizing these small wins can help combat the feeling of being overwhelmed by the project as a whole.
- Prevents Overwhelm: Establishing milestones makes large projects feel more manageable by breaking them into bite-sized pieces. Rather than getting lost in the enormity of the full project, you can focus on one milestone at a time, reducing stress and making it easier to stay on course.
- Facilitates Iterative Development: Milestones allow you to deliver and test smaller sections of the project incrementally. You can complete a milestone, test its functionality, and get feedback before moving on to the next phase. This makes the project more adaptable and allows for improvements based on real feedback, without overwhelming scope creep.
- Helps Prioritize Features: By assigning features to specific milestones, you can better prioritize what gets worked on when. This structure helps you stick to your MVP and ensures that features are introduced in a logical and organized way, reducing the temptation to add extra features along the way.
- Keeps the End Goal in Sight: Milestones serve as guideposts on the way to your final goal. By establishing them early on, you create a clear path to project completion, which helps maintain focus and momentum while avoiding unnecessary deviations or distractions.
Set Strict Boundaries (Conclusion)
- A lot of this episode is ultimately about setting and maintaining limits to prevent a project from going off the rails
- Set clear limits on what your project will and won’t include. Stick to those boundaries as you progress - this is easier said than done, especially with a personal project where you could always “just do one more thing” to make it better
- You have to keep thinking to yourself whether this “extra thing” is worth more than shipping your idea on time
