The Tiny Experiments
Framework 🧪
In this short guide, I’m going to teach you a simple framework to help you finish
what you start. You can use this to help you with development projects, content
you’re creating, or goals outside of work like your health.
Before we get started, open a text editor and write out a list of every unfinished idea or project you have. (Or just set a timer for 15 minutes if you're a
modern DaVinci.)
Step 1: Triage Your Ideas 💡
Do you have your list of ideas and projects? Great. Now you need to process
them. Repeat after me:
Not every idea you have needs to be executed.
Put another way: Not every idea needs to become a project.
Some ideas are good, some...aren't. What you need is a good way to capture
these ideas and decide which ones are worth working on and which aren't.
For each project, you're going to give it one of three outcomes:
1. Drop it: It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's just not, like the
Nintendo Virtual Boy. Just let these go.
©2021 Sam Julien
2. Defer it: Possibly a good idea, but you don't have the time or resources
to work on it right now. Put these in an Ideas Archive with your notes,
links, and your most recent thoughts about the project (e.g. "I don't know
enough about the Go ecosystem yet to know if this is worth doing.").
Your Ideas Archive could be in text or Markdown files or an app like Notion, Obsidian, or Evernote. Don't overthink it; just get started.
3. Do it: A good idea that also has the potential to either be profitable, build
an audience, help a lot of people, or take you to the next level of your career.
Try to narrow that big initial list down to just a handful of viable ideas. You're
looking for the ones that you have the time and resources to work on right now.
Not all at once, just at all; if you were to pick one, it might feel a little overwhelming but not impossible.
(Okay, in truth I actually kind of liked the Virtual Boy, but I think it was because as
a 10-year-old kid it seemed futuristic and cool. How was I supposed to know it
was a flop?)
Step 2: JPS (Just Pick Something) 🎯
Okay, so let's say you've got a clean list of 3-5 solid ideas. They seem equally
valuable with regard to profit, career growth, fun, or impact. How do you pick?
The best thing to do here is the JPS strategy: Just Pick Something. Throw a dart
at the list, randomly generate a number, or play pin-the-tail-on-the-idea. Just pick
something. Why? A few different things might happen when you pick something
and start working on it:
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1. You might start working on it and kinda hate it. Hate might be too
strong. Maybe you just get bored of it or it just doesn't "spark joy" like
you thought it would. That's some helpful data. Just drop or defer the
idea and move to the next one. Now you know!
2. You might use it as a training ground to learn a bunch of skills.
Sometimes a project isn't a dud, but it's also not a huge success. That's
okay too. Getting practice setting up an app or landing page, building an
email list, writing, or making architecture decisions are intrinsically valuable, regardless of the topic. Even if your original idea never takes off,
you're still better off for trying.
3. You might come to love the project and use it as a springboard for
other ideas. I didn't make my ngUpgrade course out of a passion for
large scale refactoring. 😅 I made it because it was a way I could help
other people escape some of the pain and suffering I went through. But a
funny thing happened: I became passionate about that work. Suddenly
people were coming up to me at conferences thanking me for saving
them a bunch of time and headache. I started bonding with students and
became emotionally invested in their success. This led to other opportunities like consulting and speaking (including a life-changing trip to Finland). All of that came from picking an idea in front of me that had good
potential and following through with it as best I could.
You may be thinking, "But Sam, if I pick something that I end up disliking or fails,
didn't I just waste a bunch of time?" That depends on how you big you make the
project, which leads us to our next step.
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Step 3: Reduce Your Scope 🔬
Now that you've picked something, it's time to reduce its scope so you can actually ship something into the world. Take the dream and scale it way down to a
Minimum Viable Product. This works equally well for content and dev projects, by
the way. A few examples:
Dream: A global AirBnB for dogs
MVP: Basic website, forum (Discourse), and payment system (Stripe)
Dream: Ultimate guide to full stack TypeScript apps
MVP: A single article on setting up Express with TypeScript
Dream: Learn Golang
MVP: Build and deploy first tiny app
So there you have it: the secret to getting more done is lowering your standards.
😅 No, no, there's a reason for this. Scoping down projects is all about validation. Remember when I mentioned risk? Let's talk about that.
Step 4: Plan a Tiny Experiment 🧪
Now that you’ve reduced your scope, you can plan your first tiny experiment.
Your goal is to do something actionable and measurable. Take the MVP you
created in the last step and apply some sort of time constraint and deliverable to
it. For example, “Build and deploy first Go app in 3 weeks” or “Write four articles
in four weeks.” Make is really easy to know when the experiment is ending and
whether it was successful.
Your goal with this first experiment isn't to get 100k users, make a million dollars,
or change the planet. Your goal is to start to testing your idea with a few people.
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This might mean comments on some content, a kind message from someone, or
a few people (who aren't related to you) buying a product or service you put out.
You're looking for quality over quantity here, because if something resonates with
or helps a few people, it will likely scale to bigger numbers as you put more effort
into creating and promoting the project.
Testing your ideas through these tiny experiments saves you a lot of time in the
long run. Imagine secretly building a massive project or piece of content only to
have it flop. This happens a lot and it's very hard to learn from these. Was it the
topic? The format? The way you marketed it? The platform you used?
Using tiny experiments lets you get feedback and improve. If your tiny experiment gets zero traction, you could tweak a few things and try again or you could
drop or defer it.
Step 5: The Feedback Loop ♻
Once the idea is validated, you can take the next steps: build the next feature,
write the next article, or update and improve to release the next version. As you
continue to build a body of work in an area, the results will compound. You'll be
able to cross-reference material you've created, build a network of people who
are interested in the same topic, and establish yourself as a credible source and
helpful community member.
I used this same "validate and iterate" process to write my book Getting Started
in Developer Relations. I had a hunch that a book like that would get a good response. Rather than agonize over every decision to create a perfect book, I timeboxed the initial production to 2 weeks. Granted, I have a lot of writing and product experience at this point, so I wasn't totally starting from scratch, but I was
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able to get something I was proud of out into the world and see what kind of response it would get. To my delight, it's been a great response!
Now that I know the idea is valid, I am working on a revised and expanded version that incorporates feedback I've gotten from readers.
You could also choose to abandon a successful experiment. Maybe you got what
you wanted out of it or it wasn't as fulfilling as you thought it would be. Either
way, you gave it a shot, created something, and grew.
How to Go Deeper
The Tiny Experiment framework is helpful everywhere, not just with dev or content. I've used it for everything from nutrition to home improvement projects.
If you're curious where this kind of thing comes from, there are a few answers,
but one is called construal level theory in social psychology. This is basically saying (as I understand it) that the farther away something is (whether physically,
psychologically, chronologically, or otherwise), the more abstract it appears. This
is why we don't plan for retirement soon enough. It's also why "start a 1 million
user SaaS" isn't a great project; if you've never done that before, you have no
idea what the steps are to get there. It feels abstract and complex so you'll likely
abandon it. Here's a great article on that subject by a research scientist named
Jude King.
As you begin to implement the Tiny Experiments framework, the next step is to
learn about building habits. Consistent little wins are what prove to yourself that
you can accomplish things. You've likely heard of James Clear's book Atomic
Habits, which is great (as is his newsletter). I'm always one of those people who
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is skeptical of extremely popular things, but it's a genuinely great book and is
popular for good reason.
Someone who predates James Clear in the habits arena is BJ Fogg, a behavior
scientist at Stanford. His book Tiny Habits is great, but there's also a free 5-day
email course that is surprisingly helpful. One lesson I learned from it: one of the
most frequent times to quit a habit is before the 3rd repetition. If you can make it
past 3, your statistics of being successful go up quite a bit. Try it!
Okay, now it’s your turn! Use the following worksheet to help you apply this
framework to a goal you’re trying to achieve.
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Tiny Experiments 🧪: Your Turn
Goal/Area:
Start by listing out all of the ideas you have to make progress on this goal.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
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Triage Your Ideas 💡 into Drop, Defer, Do
Drop:
Defer:
Do:
Just Pick Something 🎯
The idea I’m picking is:
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Reduce the Scope 🔬
Reduce your scope until is both measurable and achievable.
Notes:
First Tiny Experiment 🧪
What’s the tiny experiment you’re going to do? Make sure to give it a deadline
and a clear deliverable or outcome.
My tiny experiment is:
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Feedback Loop ♻
Write down any feedback or ways to improve on the next iteration here:
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