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For a solo founder, a feature is worth building only when there is a credible reason to expect it to improve a customer or business outcome enough to justify its time and complexity. Capture ideas without treating them as commitments, compare them against your current goal, and test uncertain demand cheaply before taking on a large build.
Start with the outcome, not the feature
Before deciding whether to build something, state what should change if you do. That might mean helping a defined group of customers complete a task, improving activation, acquiring paying customers, or reducing a recurring problem. Choose an outcome that makes sense for your business; there is no single KPI that fits every founder.
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Y Combinator’s Startup School recap recommends tying tasks to a primary KPI, such as revenue or active users. A feature list or polished roadmap is not proof of progress: the relevant question is whether the work is likely to move the outcome it is meant to affect. Read the Y Combinator recap and session transcript.
Keep ideas separate from commitments
Record requests and ideas when they arise, but do not let each one displace the work already underway. For each idea, note who is affected, what problem they are trying to solve, and what evidence supports the need. Writing something down gives you a way to review it later; it does not promise that you will build it.
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In the YC recap, Adora Cheung recommends keeping an idea spreadsheet and reviewing it weekly against the current goal. A simple spreadsheet or task list is enough; a paid roadmap tool is not necessary for this process.
Compare competing work by impact and cost
YC’s prioritization approach compares expected impact with the time or complexity required. Use the same questions for a requested feature, a bug fix, customer conversations, and sales work—not just for ideas that involve coding.
| Factor | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Outcome impact | Which customer or business outcome should change, and how likely is this work to change it? |
| Evidence | What have users said or done that supports the need? Can you test the assumption cheaply? |
| Complexity and time | How much work will this take, and can you complete it with the capacity you have? |
| Opportunity cost | What customer conversation, sales effort, or other delivery would be delayed or displaced? |
| Fit with the core job | Does this improve the main outcome users came for, or add complexity for an edge case? |
Impact and complexity come directly from YC’s framework. The other factors apply its guidance on user conversations and opportunity cost, alongside founder perspectives about avoiding complexity that does not improve the user’s core outcome.
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Check the evidence before committing
A single request can be worth recording without being enough evidence to justify a substantial build. Talk with users to understand the problem behind the request, and look for whether the need recurs among the customers or segment you want to serve. Cheung cautions against building first and speaking with users afterward: A very common mistake technical founders make is to build things first, and then go talk to users.
The quote is from her Startup School session, as reproduced in the YC recap.
When demand is uncertain and implementation would be costly, try a smaller test first. A participant in a Hacker News discussion describes using a landing page and manual service to test demand before building. That is an individual example, not a guaranteed method or a measured result; the right experiment depends on what you need to learn. See the Hacker News discussion.
Choose a disposition, then review it
After comparing an idea with the work you could do instead, decide what happens next:
Rank #4
- Build now: The expected outcome, supporting evidence, and likely effort justify prioritizing it over available alternatives.
- Test first: The need might be important, but a small experiment can answer a key question before a larger commitment.
- Defer: Keep the idea for a later review if it does not outrank current work. Explain the deferral honestly rather than implying it is already promised.
- Decline: Do not pursue it if it does not serve the customer or business outcome you are prioritizing.
Review the list on a rhythm you can sustain; YC’s example is weekly. Re-rank ideas when new user information changes the evidence, not simply because a fresh request feels urgent.
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Use simplicity as a test, not a slogan
Ask whether a proposed addition helps users do the core job better. If it serves an edge case while adding complexity or maintenance without improving that outcome, it may not deserve a place in the product. This is a useful decision lens, not a measured rule: the simplicity argument appears in individual founder comments in an Indie Hackers discussion.
Best Value
There is no established percentage for the cost of building the wrong feature or proof that one prioritization method guarantees success. The practical standard is to make each commitment traceable to an outcome, evidence, effort, and the work it would displace.
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