Green lighting a checklist side project

Ahhh that feeling of starting a new side-project!

Interact List is a free WebApp to help share and embed interactive checklists to strengthen your products and services. Right now it’s in private Alpha.

The Greenlight

There were many reasons I allowed a checklist WebApp to take up time in my day. Here are the notes I made to justify the decision, hopefully there is something in here for your next side-project decision:

1. SaaS – I’ve been wanting to take a stab at building a SaaS product for years but nothing I’m doing felt right. Having Pro features unlocked on your free checklists, at x per year, feels right.

2. Challenge – Checklists are a massively saturated space. You will be blown away at the checklist domain squatting too. The only way we will win is through an amazing UX experience (creation and sharing). A real exciting and difficult challenge.

3. It gets used every day – Rob Hope uses it to help streamline the production of the Yo! Podcast, he created an episode production checklist and bookmarked it. He also started accompanying his Landing Page private audits with an interactive checklist for his clients. With every podcast and audit he's making new notes to improve the UX. This is a huge green-light.

4. It improves other peoples offerings – Interact List (alpha) was built as a bonus add-on to the Landing Page Hot Tips Ebook. Rob wanted interactive checklists (vs a static PDF) to strengthen the core product. This creates a better first impression while giving the customer a more immersive learning experience.

This is where the idea really hits me in the gut. If it can improve other peoples products or services, then we have something ⚡️