In a cut-throat, startup environment, successful products are 10% great ideas and 90% test, learn and iterate – until your ideas are strong enough to solve critical customer problems better than the competition.

A tall order for seasoned entrepreneurs and product companies, let alone side-hustlers looking to generate a side-income from their passion projects.

Many turn to NoCode to do so. Building and launching something is easier than ever. But even though NoCode may feel like we've pulled the Excalibur from a rock, it is not quite the savior it is made out to be. Yes, it is easier to ship than ever. But solving a real problem, and offering a solution customers love and will pay for, is as hard as it's always been. Harder even, if you consider the uptick in competition.

I struggled with this for years. I read the books, learned the tools, and practiced what I preached, but without meaningful impact.

Launching a successful business is to embark on a deep and personal journey, that can be disheartening at times. The turning point for me was when I realized it is not about the tools, techniques, and skills, but rather a few crucial shifts in mindset.

Shift from "Failure is not an option!" to "Failure is the most likely outcome".

Spread your risks by betting on multiple solutions to the same problem, then double down on what works.

Accepting that Failure is the most likely outcome, is such a powerful frame, because it keeps you from falling in love with any one idea too quickly. A key entrepreneurial skill is the ability to kill your darlings. This mindset helps avoid confirmation bias.

This is important, because you want to avoid investing too much time in the wrong idea. Secondly, it forces you to nail down and validate a real unmet need, which is too often overlooked.

This is the true power of NoCode: Builders can now launch multiple MVP and funnel them like startups in an accelerator.

Read more about this approach in our post The Launch Funnel.

Shift your focus from “I need to deliver these features” to “I need to achieve these outcomes”. An outcome is achieved when you finally solve your customers’ problems, period.

No one explains this issue better than Melissa Perry in The Build Trap:

When the world continuously throws shiny objects at you, keep focus on your North Star. It's only once you prioritize work based on outcomes, that you'll start to discover and deliver real customer value.

Shift from “I love this solution” to “I can’t wait to solve this problem for real customers”.

To create great products is to deeply understand your customers. This is easier said then done, as most entrepreneurs are problem solvers. They are biased towards solutions.

If the bias towards action is a builders' strength, solution-focus is their pitfall. Why? Because rarely is our initial solution our best. Even more rarely is it able to drive a business.

If the evidence in favor of your initial assumptions comes rather easy, you may have hit a home-run. More often than not, however, it is a sign you did not dig deep enough. Always try to discover your customer's deepest desires and aspirations. What is the critical pain worth solving?

Falling in love with problems will lead you to keeping your options open. It allows a wider range of creative solutions, and it will build confidence in the problem you're tackling - before nailing the solution.

Shift from "Move fast and break stuff." to "Double down on capitalizing on your strengths in execution.". It's easy to get caught in the shiny-new-object trap. I see this happen all the time, and on all levels. Seasoned product people, serial entrepreneurs, and side-hustling bootstrappers have all fallen victim to the mindset that new is better.

Unnecessary features are added. New side-projects launched. New businesses launched. When passion overtakes reason, people blindly build new things, instead of optimizing good things.

Once you validate a solid solution, execute it. Do not overthink or over-engineer it. The best solutions are simple ones – like the paperclip.

Remember: Neo-mania is just another form of procrastination.

Switch from “I can just feel this is a great idea.” to “How do I test my critical assumptions?” Naturally, as you will start progressing ideas through your funnel, you will have favorites. To avoid making baseless decision and ensure you bet only on the right ideas – validate!

By turning your ideas into testable hypotheses and validating, you increase your chances of success.

To know what to test: check out our post on Assumptions.

To know how to test: check out our post on 52+ Validation Experiments. Filter them by stage, speed, cost and more.

Shift from "when can I launch" to "what can I launch (that let's me learn & validate my idea quicker)".

This mindset will help you cut timelines in half, whilst learning at a 10x speed. Why is that important? Because in the fast moving world of technology and changing customer needs, you want to prioritize understanding your customer over understanding your product.

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