SaaS Growth Thrives When You Stop Building Features Nobody Wants

Indie Hackers SaaS Growth: Stop Building Features Nobody Wants

Answer real questions, delight users, and boost your Indie Hacker success.

Stop Building Features Nobody Wants – Start Answering Real Questions

The harsh truth: Your customers don’t care about your shiny new dashboard or the latest feature you built. What they really care about is the problem that keeps them awake at 3 AM.

Why Indie Hackers Fall Into the Feature Trap

As indie hackers, many of us fall into the same cycle:

• A customer mentions a problem → We rush to build a feature.
• Low engagement → We build another feature.
• Still no growth → We polish the UI.
• Repeat until motivation and funds run dry.

I witnessed this firsthand. After 18 months of helping founders craft “feature announcement” blog posts, the traffic was nice — but conversions? Terrible.

Then came the accidental breakthrough.

The Breakthrough: Answering Real Questions

One client, a solo founder of a productivity app, ditched polished blogs for honest answers on Hacker News during coffee breaks. Those spontaneous comments got more signups than six months of my “professional” content.

That moment changed everything.

I started lurking where real users hang out:

• Hacker News threads about workflow frustrations.
• Twitter conversations venting about tools.
• Niche Reddit groups.
• Discord servers buzzing with conversations.
• Comments on competitor blogs.

The pattern? People ask the same core questions repeatedly. Yet, no one gives honest, detailed answers.

The Shift That Actually Works

Old approach: Write about your product.

New approach: Write about their problems.

Instead of:

“Introducing Our New Analytics Dashboard”

Try: “Why Your App Analytics Are Lying to You (And What to Track Instead)”

Instead of: “10 Productivity Tips for Remote Workers”

Try: “I Tracked My Productivity for 90 Days. Here’s What Actually Moved the Needle”

Instead of: “Our Tool vs. Competitors”

Try: “When to Use Notion vs. Airtable vs. Custom Solutions (Decision Framework)”

Real Indie Hacker Wins

• Productivity app founder: Shared authentic daily workflows instead of generic advice. Monthly signups doubled; churn dropped 40%.
• Agency tool builder: Posted honest breakdowns of failed experiments. Attracted more qualified leads who understood real value.
• E-commerce SaaS: Publicly analyzed customer support tickets. Competitors’ customers started reaching out directly.

Authenticity and specificity outpace polished marketing every single time.

Content That Converts Indie Hackers

• "I Built This Feature. Nobody Used It. Here’s Why"
• "Our Worst Month: $247 MRR and What I Learned"
• "The Customer Email That Changed Our Roadmap"
• "Most Free Trials Fail. Here’s What I Learned"
• "The Stupid Onboarding Mistake That Took Me Months to Notice"
• "Spent $2k Testing Payment Processors. Here’s What Actually Matters"

Questions That Drive Growth

• How to validate ideas without building anything?
• What’s the real cost of technical debt for indie hackers?
• How do indie hackers handle customer support alone?
• What metrics actually matter for early-stage SaaS?
• How do you compete with free tools as a solo founder?

My Indie Hacker Research Process

• Daily: Scan Hacker News, Indie Hackers, Twitter for repeated complaints.
• Weekly: Analyze customer support tickets for content ideas.
• Monthly: Interview 2–3 customers about biggest frustrations.

Tools That Help

• Hacker News search
• Twitter advanced search
• Customer.io surveys
• Loom for interviews
• Notion for organizing themes

Mistakes That Waste Time

• Over-optimizing answers to sound like marketing copy.
• Copying big company strategies that don’t fit indie scale.
• Focusing on SEO rankings over being truly helpful.
• Avoiding controversial takes — leading to boring content.
• Publishing inconsistently and losing momentum.

What Actually Works for Indie Hackers

• Be scrappy: One deep answer beats ten shallow posts.
• Be personal: Share your struggles, not just success stories.
• Be specific: “Increased signups 40%” beats generic “explosive growth.”
• Be consistent: Better to publish weekly than sporadically.
• Be helpful first; monetize later.

Let’s Talk

• What question do you get asked most by potential customers?
• Where do people in your niche go to complain or seek help?
• What’s your biggest content creation struggle as a solo founder?

Happy to dive into specifics in the comments. Indie hacking isn’t easy, but sharing what works helps all of us grow.