project_log: 008

Hey Pal.

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.

Last week was PRODUCTIVE.

First off, I want to say thank you for all the kind words and support over the past week. I did not expect the v1.0 of the new site to be received so well. I'm grateful (but this is just the beginning).

Internal update

• Product development.

• Designing feels like play

• My (current) AI workflow

• Content

Product development.

Last week I launched a rebrand of my design engineering studio. Now that this is complete, I can move on to building the first product I'll be releasing under Over-Stimulated. For the purpose of referencing, I'm calling this product Ballpark.

Without giving too much away, Ballpark is a product built on top of a wildly successful strategy I've used in my freelancing business: Giving ballpark estimates, FAST.

Last week I set the goal to build the authentication flow which included:

• Building a simple sign-in/sign-up flow

• Hooking that flow up to Supabase to store user data

• Creating protected routes so only authenticated users can access

Since I was able to complete this in about 10 minutes thanks to v0 and a template, I moved on to building the embed logic. I'll share more on this next week as it's a critical part of the product.

Designing feels like play

I'm currently reading The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. One concept he often talks about is finding things other people deem as work but to you they feel like play.

This weekend that thing was designing.

It's been super refreshing to approach a problem from both sides rather than just the development.

I'm a little hooked...

My (current) AI workflow

I'm constantly trying to learn how to leverage AI in my workflow. As an independent, these tools act as my employees. The better I utilize them, the more I can get done.

Here's my current AI-powered workflow to get Ballpark into the hands of users (as well as my own) fast:

1. Dictate the product idea to v0 to create a product requirements document.

2. Take the PRD, and create a basic mockup in Figma.

3. Feed the PRD back to v0 + the mockup I created in Figma and ask it to give me an overview of the solution it wants to build (no coding at this point).

4. Dictate improvements to the solution because this is where AI kinda sucks. It misses critical details like basic security flaws, etc.

5. Tell it to build, then copy that code into my local environment.

I'm open to feedback on how to do this better. Hit me up on X if you have any suggestions.

Content

I failed. Last week I set the goal to publish something every day. I didn't achieve this. No real excuses here other than I got lazy and didn't prioritize it.

Big progress on client projects this week

For context, I have three client projects in active development: A website for a large AI hardware company, a modular CMS build for a credit union, and a design agency website.

I deployed an integration for the AI company which migrated their job postings away from Webflow to our new Sanity-powered site. This integration replaced their make.com workflow, saving them a few coffees every week. WIN.

I've also been working through some design changes on their new product page. The designer absolutely killed it on this one. So clean. If he's reading, kudos to you man.

The goal was to hit 50% of required tasks before a release coming up. We probably hit at least 75%. I was cranking this week (a break over the holidays probably helped).

Over-delivering is paying off

In last week's log, I wrote about the importance of over-delivering. This week, over-delivering is paying dividends.

The credit union client has suggested they want a support package to continue to improve and upgrade their website. This is a huge win as it indicates they are happy with the service we provided. MRR incoming?

All QA items were actioned (hitting the goal) but there are a few additional quality-of-life features they want built before launch. Once we do launch, I've got a new project starting right away. More on that next week.

Goals for the week ahead

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

Clients

1. Build additional quality-of-life upgrades for the credit union.

2. Finish 100% of the updates for the AI company before release.

3. Spend one day building interactions for the design agency.

Internal

Setting internal goals doesn't feel right this week because all I can think about is designing and developing Ballpark. Any time I have spare, you'll find me at the desk working on this (or surfing of course).

That's all for this week. Keep crushing. Talk soon.

Will,
From the internet.