project_log: 007

Yo.

Welcome back to project_log, a series where I give a raw, unpolished update on what I'm building and the lessons learned while building over-stimulated.com.

The goal of this series is to inspire others to build their own independent businesses and learn from the mistakes I make along the way.

It's been a big week. Let's get into it:

New Over-Stimulated® website is live

The first iteration of the new Over-Stimulated website/brand is live at over-stimulated.com.

Releasing a version of the site that is not absolutely perfect has been a huge mental hurdle to overcome. I'm so used to sweating every possible detail and making sure everything is perfect.

This time the goal was done, not perfect.

It's important to strategise where you are spending resources. For me, spending the extra 20 hours on making it perfect wasn't worth it right now. I'd rather spend that time creating content, building products, and acquiring new clients as this provides a much higher ROI on my time.

Either way I'm stoked with how it looks. Shout out to Lovish from Otherdays for all his help.

The pivot to "Design Engineering"

As part of the rebrand from Outkast to Over-Stimulated, I've changed my title from developer to design engineer. This feels like a natural next step. I already handle the motion design for clients and want to be doing more design, so it just makes sense.

Huge companies are screaming for design engineers (just look at all the job postings here). So from a business perspective, changing my title to something companies want seems like a good idea.

Giving myself this label also means I have to get better at design otherwise I'll look like a fraud.

Light a fire under your ass, it works.

I'm working on a product. Let's call it Ball Park for now

One strategy that has served me incredibly well as an independent has been giving ballpark estimates for price and timeline, extremely fast. Clients or agencies want to know if the price fits their budget before you get on a call. It saves a stupid amount of time for both parties.

To make this even more efficient (and accurate), I've started building a feature on my new site that asks prospective clients a few questions then generates an estimate immediately. They are then asked to book a call while their details are sent through to my CRM for managing.

I'll share more details as I continue to build, but I've decided to turn the feature into a product.

Current progress

Instead of jumping straight into design, I mapped out the product in Figma with a very rough wireframe. I then dictated that wireframe to v0 (AI coding tool) to help me write a Product Requirement Document that I can feed back to it when I start development.

It was a fantastic exercise to get clear on all parts of the product, from user stories to key features and risks. I now also have a document I can share with friends and potential users to get their feedback on the idea.

I've started building out the authentication and database setup, but these parts are kinda boring so nothing too exciting to share here.

A Lesson I Learned This Week Building Client Projects

For context: I have three client projects I'm actively building. A site for a large AI hardware company, a site for a credit union, and a site for a design agency.

Lesson: Over-Fucking-Deliver

I received a message this week from the VP of Growth at the AI company I've been working with. He was asking if I'd be open to a monthly retainer while they build out a web team. This project started as a one-off build and now has the potential to become a long-term relationship with some incredibly talented people. I'm stoked.

Opportunities like this don't come to you when you do the bare minimum. You have to be willing to give your knowledge, expertise, time, and support without asking for anything in return.

This is what the client is paying for, not just a new website.

BUT there always comes a time when clients want more than what they have paid for. The trick here is to over-deliver first, and then tell them that new features fall outside the current scope.

Usually, they'll happily extend the scope because you've over-delivered, building trust. So when you say something is out of scope, there's no hesitation or concern that you're trying to rip them off.

Goals for the Week Ahead

This is where I write down my goals for the week to keep myself accountable.

Clients

1. Finish all QA for the credit union site.

2. Complete 50% of the updates required for the AI company before our upcoming big release.

3. Spend one day on the interactions for the design agency site.

Internal

1. Finish setting up the authentication and database for Ball Park.

2. Write and publish at least one piece of content every day this week. This could be a project log, a tweet, an essay, etc.
   

It feels amazing to be making some visual progress.

Keep crushing. Talk soon.

Will,
From the internet.