AI Made Building Easier. Getting Your First 10 Users Is Still Hard.

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.

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:

I wanted to build something around meaningful feedback. Why I built Critique Critique is an open-source platform built around one simple workflow:

It's to get useful perspectives that help you make better decisions.

Sometimes one useful feature is better than ten features nobody asked for.

You can't just publish a product and expect people to discover it. You need to talk to people, understand their problems, and listen.

Collecting feedback is the beginning. Understanding it and deciding what to change is where the real work happens.

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?