A few months ago, I started building a project called Critique.
The idea was simple: give developers and indie makers a place to share what they're building, ask one focused question, and get honest feedback from real people.
I thought building the product would be the biggest challenge.
I was wrong.
Building software is getting easier
AI tools have changed how developers work.
Today, you can:
- Generate a frontend in minutes.
- Build APIs with AI assistance.
- Debug code faster.
- Create prototypes without a large team. As a solo developer, I use these tools to move faster.
But there's a problem.
Building something doesn't mean people will use it.
You can have a working application, a clean interface, and a long list of features, but still struggle to find your first users.
The real challenge starts after building
When I started working on Critique, I realised that getting feedback was not as easy as I expected.
Posting a project on social media might get you a few likes.
Sharing it in a community might get you some comments.
But those things don't always tell you what you actually need to know:
- Does someone understand what I'm building?
- Would they use it?
- What's confusing?
- What should I improve first? I didn't want another place where people simply promote their projects.
I wanted to build something around meaningful feedback.
Why I built Critique
Critique is an open-source platform built around one simple workflow:
- Share your project.
- Ask one specific question.
- Let real people explore it.
- Collect feedback.
- Use that feedback to improve. The goal isn't to collect as many opinions as possible.
It's to get useful perspectives that help you make better decisions.
You can explore it here:
- Website: https://critique.page
- GitHub: https://github.com/BistaDinesh03/critique What I'm learning as a solo founder Building Critique has taught me a few things.
- More features don't automatically mean more value.
Sometimes one useful feature is better than ten features nobody asked for.
- Getting users requires conversations.
You can't just publish a product and expect people to discover it. You need to talk to people, understand their problems, and listen.
- Feedback is only useful when you act on it.
Collecting feedback is the beginning. Understanding it and deciding what to change is where the real work happens.
- Open source is about people, not just code.
A contributor who reports a problem, improves documentation, or helps another user can make a meaningful difference.
What's next for Critique?
I'm still improving the platform, fixing issues, and learning from the people who use it.
I also want to make it easier for developers to discover interesting projects and give each other useful feedback.
I don't have everything figured out yet. That's part of building in public.
A question for other developers
If you're building a side project, startup, or open-source tool:
What's your biggest challenge right now?
- Building the product?
- Finding your first 10 users?
- Getting honest feedback?
- Turning feedback into improvements? I'd genuinely like to hear what you're experiencing.
Top comments (9)
Asking one specific question is what keeps Critique from becoming another place to collect likes. The harder part you name is still the follow-through: deciding what changes after the feedback comes in.
Exactly. Collecting feedback is only half the job.
I've been thinking about how to help builders move from "someone suggested this" to "this is actually worth improving."
How do you usually decide which feedback deserves your attention first?
You said feedback is only useful when you act on it, and I think that's the hard part. When two people give opposite advice about the same screen, how do you decide which one to follow? Do you wait for a third opinion, or go with your gut?
That's a great question. I wouldn't automatically follow the majority or wait for a third opinion.
I'd first look at who the feedback came from, what problem they're experiencing, and whether it matches the goal of the product.
Sometimes the best answer is to test a small change rather than debate opinions.
Have you ever ignored feedback that later turned out to be right?
Two weeks of numbers from the other side of this post, because I think they make your point better than any argument.
One day last week my site recorded 113 page views. Traced by user agent, 92 were crawlers, 20 were my own checks, and one was a human. That human arrived, went straight to a checkout page, and stopped.
That single stranger produced more useful information than the previous week of posting. The failures were embarrassing but specific: the email field was silently optional on a purchase that depends on it, and the annual plan printed $39 next to an unexplained $468 total. Both took an afternoon to fix.
The lesson I keep relearning: the honest sample is tiny, so treat every real visitor as a full data set. One row of "stopped at step 2 and never returned" outweighs a hundred polite likes, because it names something you can repair. Your one-focused-question workflow matches that: a question a stranger can answer in ten seconds is worth more than a survey.
Good luck with Critique. The difficulty you described is real, and the people who respond at all are the whole signal.
That's a really useful example. 113 page views sounds encouraging until you separate actual people from everything else.
I especially like your point about treating every real visitor as a full data set. That's exactly the kind of thinking I want to encourage with Critique.
Curious, did you discover those two checkout issues through analytics, or by watching the visitor's actual journey?
first 10 users feels harder for consumer apps than dev tools tbh. devs will tell you whats broken, normal people just close the tab and you never find out why. asking one specific question gets way more back than asking for feedback in general
I agree with this. Developers are usually more willing to explain what's wrong, while most users just leave without saying anything.
That's why I think the question matters so much. Instead of asking "What do you think?", ask something specific.
Have you found any good way to get feedback from users who normally just leave?
That's true man. AI gave everyone the power to build. But very few know how to sell their products. I am dealing with this same issue. I have built multiple products, but I couldn't sell them. People on Reddit gave me some good feedback about my work, but nothing changed. Like, talking about one of my product, cxgrd, I received many positive reviews on X and Reddit. But no users. Now, since it is a CLI tool, I cannot really tell how many users are there, if there are. Because tracking installs and usage is not easy (although I have a completely optional telemetry script inside the tool). I assume no one is using it actively. Because people face issues using a new product, and contact the creator. Since I didn't receive any such feedback, either I am not working hard enough to market it, or the tool isn't as useful as I think it is.
Nevertheless, I will keep working on cxgrd to make it better.