A Bit of SaaS Weekly: Heat Wave

This is a weekly newsletter on the Software as a Service world. Learning, building, and shipping. Written by Ethan Mick.

The end of summer has come with a vicious heat wave in the northeast US. When it's this hot, all I can think of is how nice it would be to have some water to swim in! The best friends are the ones with pools.

The Best Bits

• Astro 3.0 was released.
• Making sense of React Server Components.
• Open-source visual editor for React.
• React component library to build analytics dashboard.
• An open-graph meta tag test and validate site.

Just launch it

Too many individuals grapple with the idea of launching a project that isn't polished to perfection. They ponder, second-guess, and tweak details endlessly in pursuit of a flawless product. However, you should launch as soon as you can, even with something imperfect.

Here are some clear wins when you launch as soon as you've solved the core problem.

Perfection is Illusive: First and foremost, perfection is a moving target. What appears perfect today might be outdated or irrelevant tomorrow. Instead of chasing an ever-evolving ideal, it's more pragmatic to start with a minimum viable product (MVP) and refine it as you learn more.

Rapid Feedback: By launching earlier, you allow yourself to collect invaluable feedback from real users or stakeholders. This real-world data is often more beneficial than any number of brainstorming sessions or theoretical models. You learn what genuinely works, what doesn’t, and what users truly want. If you launched too soon, you'll know immediately. Fix it with rapid improvement.

Efficiency: Perfecting a product or project often requires a considerable investment of time, money, and energy. If the 'perfected' version doesn’t resonate with the market, these resources are wasted. Starting with a simpler version allows for a more efficient allocation of resources based on actual needs and feedback. Your users will tell you what they want you to do next.

Avoiding Analysis Paralysis: Spending too much time in the planning phase can lead to indecision and stagnation. The fear of making mistakes or not achieving perfection can be paralyzing. By pushing to start and then iterate, you sidestep this potential pitfall and maintain forward momentum.

While the desire for perfection is natural, it’s essential to recognize that in many scenarios, launching and refining as you go is a more strategic approach. Embracing the cycle of learning, pivoting, and iterating can lead to better products, more satisfied users, and more innovation.

Tech Tip

It's not hard to pass a component as a property in React. This is a great tip from Matt.

const Row = (props: {
  icon: React.ComponentType<{
    className?: string;
  }>;
}) => {
  return (
    <div>
      <props.icon className="h-8 w-8" />
    </div>
  );
};
 
<Row icon={UserIcon} />;

In the above the icon proper is React.ComponentType. You can pass in the props that the component takes by passing { className?: string } to React.ComponentType, indicating that this is a component that can receive a className prop.

This basically says icon can be any component that can receive a className prop. This is a very flexible type, and it's easy to use.

Cloud Chronicles

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I'm still working on updating my process to get content out the door. The most consistent thing I do is this newsletter, so I'm trying to expand what makes it successful to other parts of my content.

Last Byte

• The Worst Programmer I Know.
• A peer-to-peer file transfer web app.
• Another icon set.