Its not the features, Its the idea

People should come to your service for the idea or the philosophy of your product and not for fancy features like ajax search. An example that I really like is @ replies were not part of twitter. They were introduced later when people started using twitter that way. Same goes for video response feature in youtube which was introduced when people started responding to a video with another video. Assuming that your service will not take off until there are enough features to wow everyone is a mistake. Delaying launch to add more features is an even bigger mistake.

For wide adoption, build what people want

If people start using your service in ways you did not imagine and you build a feature that facilitates such usage, its gonna have adoption. Both @replies of twitter and video responses of youtube were such features. Its a good idea to not let the geek in you decide what features to implement because the coolest new feature may not be what people want. When your users ask for a feature, they adopt and evangelize it. In case of Muziboo, some features that we built did not have huge adoption but surprisingly features offered as part of pro account had good adoption even though they are paid. These were the features that we rolled out after users asked for it.

Don’t underestimate the cost of a feature

A feature is not just a hundred lines of code that you can hack together in a few hours. When you have a live site, a feature is much more. It is

• Real estate on the page
• Cross browser compatibility work
• Documentation work
• Bug tracking and fixing

Make sure you factor in all of above before you decide to implement something new.

Don’t listen to everyone

Finally don’t listen to everybody. Don’t listen to the geeks and coders who love coding new features or use cool new technologies. Whenever in doubt, ask your users.

If you have not already read, I highly recommend reading the Getting Real book.  By the time you finish the book you will realize that constraints are not such bad things after all :)

There are some things that have helped me avoid the traps and stay productive. Most of these techniques start having some effect only after a couple of weeks so like everything else, patience helps here too :)

Be Accountable and track your progress

Even though you are your own boss, you need to stay accountable to yourself and your startup. That means setting up milestones and then reviewing the progress weekly (or bi-weekly if you prefer).
Since I responsible for the development work in Muziboo, I use Trac + SVN (at assembla) to keep a track of my tasks and then review the progress every now and then. Your work may be never ending but having measurable tasks helps you get a sense of accomplishment amongst other things.

Don’t let the boring work bring you down

This one took me a little while to get used to. Every entrepreneur has to do a lot of not so exciting stuff too and we generally keep avoiding it for as long as we can. This results in a lot of baggage that can cause you to worry about it every now and then. Keep a track of this work too and finish one off for every one or two exciting things that you do. Boring work could be anything from sending a courier to replying to a few emails or getting your car insured :)

Have an office in home

This one is often talked about in the bootstrapping circle. Don’t work out of your bedroom. Have a separate room that is just for work. Try to get out of it even while you have a tea break. Be there just to code.

Don’t try to be over productive

You can be the most productive if you don’t work 24×7. Its good to compulsorily take a day off every week. Initially this make seem like a crime but over a few weeks this would actually help you stay more productive. A break on a sunday helps you look forward to Monday mornings and also gives your head a well deserved break. Also remember that ideas rarely hit you while you are slogging so a break can actually be more useful than you think.

In the end I feel working out of home is like working out of office. Nothing more nothing less. You need to give yourself breaks just like you did when you had a corporate job and you need to review your progress just like you did back then. Setting up some processes help a lot. Working out of home, you have the luxury of setting up processes that are best for you. Use it :)