The Counter-Movement
A growing cohort of indie developers is pushing back against the "ship fast, break things" mantra that's dominated startup culture for a decade. Diego Oliveira, a solo developer, spent three years working through a problem-first methodology that inverts the typical build-first approach.
The process: spend weeks listing personal problems, attempt to solve them without building anything, then validate market size before writing code. Oliveira reports most items on his original list were resolved through behaviour changes or existing products.
Why This Matters Now
The timing is notable. Lean startup methodology has been gospel since Eric Ries popularised it in 2011. Build-measure-learn cycles became doctrine, particularly in VC-backed circles where speed to market justified burn rates.
But bootstrap economics operate differently. When you're funding development from personal savings or early revenue, building the wrong thing isn't just a pivot opportunity - it's months of wasted runway. The pre-build validation phase Oliveira describes acts as risk mitigation.
The Enterprise Parallel
This mirrors what enterprise architects have known for years: discovery phases exist for a reason. The difference is scale. A CTO at a bank might spend six months on requirements gathering for a core system replacement. An indie developer spending two weeks listing problems is applying the same discipline at a compressed timeline.
The methodology includes market research using tools like SimilarWeb and SensorTower to validate existing player traction before committing to development. Oliveira's threshold: millions in monthly traffic or revenue from incumbent solutions.
Trade-offs
The obvious cost is opportunity. While you're validating problems, competitors might be shipping. The bet is that shipping the right thing slowly beats shipping the wrong thing quickly.
What this really represents: a maturation of indie development culture. The realisation that constraints require discipline, and that Silicon Valley playbooks optimised for venture scale don't necessarily translate to solo operations.
We'll see if the approach gains traction beyond blog posts. But the conversation itself signals something: exhaustion with cargo-cult speed for speed's sake.