If you do Micro SaaS you have to do something very important. Otherwise, your product may encounter many problems. We have experienced this ourselves. I can assure you that you can solve many problems with this life-saving strategy. First, let me tell you what kind of problems you may encounter.
Let’s say users do some CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations in your Micro SaaS. One enters some data using the language option with the select box. You are using the English language as standard. But your business is going well and you decide to add German in the future. You are editing the system as HTML, which does not work when you run it. Because you didn’t do the post process, it is not added to the database. You clear this error and continue with your work. Then you notice that some users information is not visible. No matter how hard you try and look, the information is incorrect. Even if you do all kinds of research, why don’t you know the user information is wrong?
In this process, they usually overwrite the system. In case there is no problem. Or they debug. Let’s assume that even if we do it according to all of them, the problem is still not solved. In this case, they can say, “We did this on purpose, this is a feature” as plan B. 🙂
We all know it’s not a feature. So what happened when we added a new language feature and it broke? You know how hard it is to understand that, right? This is my imaginary scenario. I haven’t experienced anything like this. But I experienced something like this. There is an error and it cannot be resolved. We are writing a new system, but it still cannot be solved. What will we do then? We found a solution by rewriting the system. But we didn’t do that life-saving thing in the first place. It’s ignorance. That’s why I say the caravan gets cargo on the way. It is very difficult to learn about the road without getting involved in these things.
Get ready for life-saving information! This is such information that it is very boring to do, but the results it offers you are amazing!
Very simple. Keep a diary! (Log) Write what and which feature you added in the corner. Report it! Now I’m going to tell you a Micro SaaS memory of how we realized the problem we had and how important it really is to keep a log. At that time we didn’t know the idea of keeping a diary. We were never warned and yet I will tell you how we created a diary that didn’t exist. Yes, we have created a log that does not exist!
It was a software product. It had a search engine in it. People were looking for things and seeing the results. They could even download those results. Now I will not explain everything in detail, otherwise, I have to explain the algorithm. 🙂 That’s why I say we added a new feature. And BOOM! The system is broken. It looked like it was running, but it wasn’t running in the background. The site was running like crazy. And we didn’t know what it meant. We searched for the codes but in vain. No. Even though we looked inside the codes in the system we wrote, we could not solve the problem.
At that moment, an idea came to my partner’s mind. Here we discovered that life-saving thing. Daily! We were communicating via WhatsApp. Since we did not keep a diary until then, we did not take notes of what we did and why. My partner looked at them with the timestamps on WhatsApp to identify what we were doing and what was twitching in the back.
For this, you enter the cPanel interface of the website and see when the CPU values of your site increase. You take note of the times when it rises. Then you compare it to WhatsApp messages. That way you can discover what you’re doing. Isn’t it great? 🙂
So What Should I Do Now?
Keep a diary. Keep a diary from the moment you start your product. Keep a journal by adding what kind of feature you’ve added. And in case of an extraordinary situation, you can look at the calendar in that diary. I and my ex-partner used to call it a report. Report everything. I say diary now because it makes more sense in terms of meaning. And if you succeed in the future, it will help you remember the steps you have taken more clearly.
I prepared a Notion template for you to use. As soon as you add a new feature, it automatically stamps the time and date there. If you have a partner, you can use it together because it also states whoever wrote the line. Using the filters feature, you can see who wrote what and when. This will often save your life!
One Step Beyond!
When I told my ex-partner the idea I’ll tell you in a moment, he said, “This might be the best thing you’ve ever said.“
You can take as many notes as you want with your hand, but when you think one step further, “what if the things you didn’t take note of happen independently of you?” What will you do in this situation?
Micro SaaS Example
When there is an update in the database or data is deleted, that’s when you swallow the pill. 😀 I thought I’d write a feature for it. Because I was the one on the team who took care of the software side. I was told that database transactions should be reported in the feature. Data updating, deletion, addition. I’m also talking about keeping reports such as which page the user entered and when. Automatically switch to the emergency plan when the site’s CPU is high. I mentioned features such as let us know. Didn’t get a chance to do it. But I plant the seeds of this trait in your mind. You can also add an advanced logging feature to your site.
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