Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Alex Alexakis

I have always been a fan of keeping a healthy mix of side projects layered into everyday life. Throughout the years, I have been involved in several side projects such as a taxi-hailing app, an online influencers network, a matchmaking service between entrepreneurs and investors, a productivity bot that would help you remain focused and present, writing a blog, etc, most of which never saw the light of the day (with a ratio of 3:1).

I will tell you about those that eventually saw the light of the day, which were by far the most rewarding:

In 2013, along with a couple of friends from university, we launched a service guiding students throughout their applications in UK universities. The upfront cost needed was minor, and hence this quickly became a cashflow positive business that we could run in our spare time. Before shutting this down a couple of years later, we had funded a get-together trip in Milan, made some money on the side, helped a few people enter some of the best universities in the UK, as well as significantly improved our writing skills.
In 2015, along with 5 friends, we launched a trivia mobile game for iOS devices. That was by far the biggest side project in terms of people involved and time invested. The result was a product in the appstore, that got featured in ProductHunt a few hours after launch, got very positive feedback with a bunch of 5-star reviews, had significant engagement, but eventually never grew and we shut it down less than a year later. However, among other things I took from this side project, it also helped me land my next full-time job.

Nothing is wrong with people having side projects, as there is nothing wrong with people spending a bit of their spare time and creativity in projects other than their day job. In fact, through side projects you tremendously improve skills you can use in your current workplace. In addition, side projects are usually not selected based on the likelihood of them becoming a career, as it is highly unlikely things will turn out this way. You are not trying to start the next unicorn company. You are just trying to build skills. Hence, it is a win-win situation and definitely not a sign of limited commitment to their current employer.

Furthermore, working on a side project is also a way to be a creator, rather than a consumer, although that is not to say that side projects need to be 100% focused on production. For instance, you might be interested in building a website, but not have the technical skills to do it. In this case, you would start from taking an online course on website development. Then, throughout the course, you could work on the website, knowing it will take a while, but always with that goal keeping you motivated.

As Julie Zhuo argues, side projects work best when they live at the intersection of “Things you enjoy” and “Things that help you practice a marketable skill”, ending up with this Venn diagram:

https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/the-importance-of-side-projects-cf9f63954031

Therefore, for something to qualify as a side-project it needs to be enjoyable, but at the same time lets you practice a marketable skill.

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Why work on side projects?

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