---
date: 2021-07-13
modified_at: 2021-07-13
tags: [entrepreneurship, programming]
description: Key product development lessons learned from building FriendTime v2, including the importance of simple validation before adding features, avoiding premature monetization, and the underestimated time cost of final touches.
---
# Lessons learned building the second version of FriendTime

First validate: Keep the feature-set simple.

Because I wanted too much for the first version, it took me more than a month to
build. Because I set too high goals for the FIRST Version, I started doubting
the product and gave up. When trying to continue half a year later, I had to
greatly simplify the product, and still it was a lot of work to get the app
working again.

Monetise after it's validated, not during.

In production I figured out that the app wasn't that good. The monetisation made
the app take a lot more time to build. After it was sort of done, I found out
the app wasn't good enough. 

The final touch takes the most time.

This is probably the most important lesson. Make sure you don't underestimate
how long something will take. Every extra feature will cost a lot more time
compared to the time you estimate it to cost. Iterations make sure it takes
twice as long to perfect it. 

Write code well, not fast.

Reading code that isn't well organised half a year later is hard.