Make the most of Side Projects (The Side Projects Series)

Some of the most popular products and companies we know, including Slack, Twitter, Craigslist, Gmail and Trello, started as a side project. Side projects come in many forms but are typically projects started outside of normal work hours.

Often, the desire to start a side project is driven by the quest to become an entrepreneur, an interest in something outside of your core area of expertise, or boredom. Looking for a new challenge, wanting to expand or grow your skillset, or pursuing an idea doesn’t mean you have to give up your full-time job to do it.

In this post, I'd like to talk about why you should pursue a side project, some examples of side projects that transformed into big companies and list things that make a good side project.

The following post is part of a series of blogs called “The Side Projects Series”, where I want to explore and touch upon various aspects of pursuing side projects. You might have read/watched content on examples of side projects, or how to actual side projects.

In this series, however, I want to provide an in-depth exploration of side projects - and how someone can pursue them effectively. Whether you are a student - pursuing a project purely for exploration - or, a professional - looking for career advancement, or creating your own product - this series will be most valuable to you.

This series will span across a few days (even weeks). But, you can always refer to the series guide, to read all the posts.

The series guide:

1. Make the most of Side Projects
2. Why you won’t finish your side project (not published)
3. How to actually build (and finish) side projects (not published)
4. Presenting your projects (not published)
5. The dark side of side projects (not published)

Make the most of Side Projects:

I’m sure you have some big, crazy ideas that have been sitting in the back of your mental closet for months, if not years. What if these side project ideas aren’t so "crazy" after all?

Side projects help us uncover new interests, promote divergent thinking (one of the building blocks of creativity), and can potentially take your life in an unexpected direction. However, that's also what makes them scary. They require time and money—and more importantly, you'll need enough motivation from the meaning the side project brings to keep going when it's tough.

Now, when it comes to jobs or moving up the corporate ladder you might find some people say that top-tech companies place more emphasis on problem-solving questions, rather than on side projects.

This does not mean side projects aren’t important. They are, very much so. See, we often look at side projects from the point of view of adding weight to our resumes. I think that is the wrong approach. Side projects need to be done for your own interest and skills, and when you do that, the benefits will automatically show up in your resume. Remember that the main goal of doing side projects is to become better at engineering, and have fun while at it!

When built efficiently and followed with passion, your side project can also lead you to create a valuable commercial product/service. In fact, some of the world's most successful companies started as side projects.

1. Github:

"It all started with a domain, a cheap slice from Slicehost, and some stock art," the founders say. Before GitHub became the billion-dollar company it is today, founders Chris Wanstrath and PJ Hyett were building websites for CNET, the tech news and review site. They were upset with how difficult it was to change open source code and so they built their own repository, working nights and weekends. Now, with close to 20 million users and hundreds of millions in venture capital, their side project is front and center.

2. Twitter:

While ubiquitous now, Twitter was once a tiny side project created by podcasting platform Odeo during a company hackathon. It was nothing but an outlet for a few employees, and although CEO Ev Williams supported it, investors and the press couldn't care less. Just look at this decade-old TechCrunch review:

"What is this company doing to make their core offering compelling? How do their shareholders feel about side projects like Twttr when their primary product line is, besides the excellent design, a total snoozer?"

Turns out what they were doing was building an entirely new business and changing the way we communicate online, all without even realizing it at the time.

3. KhanAcademy :

While tutoring his cousins, Khan Academy founder Sal Khan got a bit of a backhanded compliment: They preferred seeing him online, rather than meeting him in person. What could've been an easily brushed off comment stuck with Khan, and so he began creating 10-minute YouTube clips on subjects ranging from biology to art, all while being employed as a hedge fund analyst. When things started to take off, Khan quit his job and now employs more than 100 people.

4. Instagram:

Have you heard of Burbn, the location-based app for whisky lovers? Yeah, me neither. But chances are that you've used one of the features that came out of it. While people weren't flocking to the whisky app to post their location, they were sharing photos on it. And not just of whisky. With that as their validation, the founders decided to quietly launch a side project of just the photo-sharing app. Some 25,000 people signed up on day one, and now, Instagram, as it's known, services some 800 million monthly users. Oh, and they sold to Facebook for $1 billion.

• A project that is full stack, covers multiple different areas of technologies from hardware to software and client-side apps to backend cloud services. This not only gives you a breath of experience but also helps you learn the art of integrating different pieces of technologies together to form a cohesive unit.

• A project that uses current platforms, frameworks, and programming languages. This makes sure that your skills are transferrable. Don’t always choose a stack that you are comfortable with, try to pick one that is best for the project.

• Something that you are passionate about. This could be a cause that you are close to, may something that has personal meaning, or one that has a cool story behind it. When you are excited and passionate about something, you will automatically put your best effort towards it.

• A project that has a tangible and meaningful impact. This could be something that helps underdeveloped parts of the world, or something related to the current context of the global pandemic.

• And finally, something that is unique and fun. Stop building the typical TODO lists, calculators, interpreters, and sudoku solvers. They have been done too much. Put a fun twist. Come up with something unique. Software projects don't have to be boring!

Side projects thrive on passion and fun. Sure, it would be great if your side project resulted in a second source of income or an amazing piece for your portfolio, but that’s a nice side effect and not the primary goal. In the upcoming post (for this series), I'll talk about why most of us (probably you too, sorry) fail to finish the side project: some of the reasons are psychological, some cultural.