From Zero to Beta: Crafting a Free, Accountless Location-Based Experience

The Minnesota Then website/web app, a side project I have been working on to varying degrees since November 2022, is finally “finished.” At long last I get to start devoting my time to content instead of living well out of my comfort zone in the land of web development.

I have no problem telling the world that AI played a part in getting the code in the proper place. It didn’t tell me what should go where, or tell me what color or style I should use to best represent the message I was trying to deliver, but it did help me create tangible versions of my ideas in code.

That being said, there are some things I learned while taking my idea from “nothing” and turning it into “something”:

Understand that you are your worst critic

The number of times I changed course, small tweaks to big changes, is almost innumerable. Far too many times I scrapped good ideas because I didn’t like them. People, on more than one occasion, told me I was crazy, and that I should go with the good work I was doing — but I struggled to listen. It cost me time, and it cost me (at least in some cases) good work.

While the end justified the means, it took me much longer to get to the point I am today. Were some of the changes necessary? Absolutely. All of them? Not by a long shot.

Here’s what I would’ve done differently. Find a couple opinions I trust and get their thoughts whenever I was doubting the quality of my work. Would it have been for everything? No — after all at the end of the day it was MY work, but it would have helped — and likely saved me some time — to get others involved at a small level to help keep me on track.

All momentum is forward, even if you feel like you are going backward

There were days — lots of them, that I put in what felt like hours of work only to come to the realization that I didn’t get anywhere. In fact, I was further from the finish line than I was at the start of the day when I opened up my laptop. While that feeling sucked (it did — my mom always hated that word, but it feels right here) I eventually realized each “bad” day made the next day better. Incremental forward momentum wasn’t just on the “good” days, nor was it on days that it just didn’t feel that way.

All momentum is forward.

The bad days create lessons that help make the good days better. Granted, they aren’t nearly as memorable — nor as rewarding — as the really good days, but they are an important part of the process.

Be willing to be done when you are done

My goal for this project is to create incredible content that will help people learn about Minnesota history in a way that they may not have otherwise done. Doing it online helps me make it as close to free to use as humanly possible.

Constantly changing and tweaking my way to perfection simply doesn’t allow me to get where I want to go. At some point, my plan for a public facing platform is going to need to be validated — and that is going to require the public.

For that to happen I have to be willing to be done.

Imposter syndrome is real, but do the work anyway

I am not a developer. In fact I am much more artist/writer/content creator than anything to do with code. Historically I’ve written for platforms — including this one — but never REALLY ventured off on my own, especially not to this scale. If I had a nickel for every time I thought I wasn’t nearly good enough to be doing what I was doing, I would’ve had enough money to pay someone qualified to do it for me.

Here’s the deal, though. I eventually got where I wanted to be. It took leaning on the skills I believe I uniquely offer this project, but the reality is that I couldn’t have gotten to this point without them. Yes — I have no business in the development space, but at the same time I am uniquely qualified to get this thing to be what it is today (and where it will be tomorrow).

If I gave it to imposter syndrome I’d never be at this point. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a thing — it most definitely is –but do the thing you want to do anyway.

The last one is a short one and not really worthy of its own section. Enjoy the process, but don’t ever take your foot off the gas pedal. Momentum is gained after a series of deliberate and ongoing movements. Stopping halts momentum.

Don’t stop. Keep going until you are done. I can honestly say that I feel pretty darn good right now — and would be living with nothing with regret if I didn’t keep going.

You too. Keep going.

I almost forgot — here is the site. https://mnthen.com/ Please take a look. If you are Minnesota — feel free to tell everyone you know about it.

Here is what it looked like in June 2023 (just for fun). https://web.archive.org/web/20230602060556/https://mnthen.com/