Dave Cheong

Day 15 - Release Early and Often, Iterate Fast 
15 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
If you’re a startup, each feature you complete, each piece of feedback you get, each user who signs up—they all add up. Keep shipping and keep moving forward. That's how you build something real and tangible.
Hey there! It’s Day 15 of my indie hacker journey!
I’m a perfectionist and I tend to work at something until I’m happy with it before I release it. That's not good when building a startup. I need to ship fast, get feedback, and iterate. 
Ship early and often—even if it's small—to build momentum. 
If you’re a startup, each feature you complete, each piece of feedback you get, each user who signs up—they all add up. Keep shipping and keep moving forward. That's how you build something real and tangible.
Yesterday, was huge. I launched a landing page. Today, I’m building out the changelog and blog, then I’ll be adding in collections and improving the overall writing experience. If you head over to usermastery.com, you might not immediately notice the dozens of little improvements since I launched the landing page, but they’re there and they’re adding up.
Small wins compound.
I'm posting every weekday. See you tomorrow!
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Day 14 - User Mastery, the best changelog and help documentation platform, now has a landing page
13 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
The page gives a high-level overview of what User Mastery is about and outlines the Top 12 benefits of using the platform. I've also included a simple email capture form, so if someone stumbles across the page and is interested, they can get on the waiting list to stay in the loop.
Hey there!
I’ve been incredibly productive! I'm excited to share that I've launched a simple landing page for User Mastery.
The page gives a high-level overview of what User Mastery is about and outlines the Top 12 benefits of using the platform. I've also included a simple email capture form, so if someone stumbles across the page and is interested, they can get on the waiting list to stay in the loop.
This is a huge step forward. It's one thing to have an idea, but getting something live—even if it's just a landing page—makes it real. Now I can start driving some traffic to it and gauge interest before I invest more too much time building out the full product.
The goal right now is to work towards a Minimum Viable Product, so I’ll be working hard on the changelog and help documentation features.
If you’re interested, head on over to https://usermastery.com to check it out.
I'm posting every weekday. See you tomorrow!
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Welcome to the Start of User Mastery
13 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey
Welcome! Who am I? What Is User Mastery? How does this help you?

Hi, I’m Dave!

I'm a dad of two and I run a bespoke software development company here in Sydney, Australia. Over the years, I've worked with many clients, from small startups to big enterprises and government agencies. I've noticed all product teams share the same challenges:
Communicating effectively with their users.
After years of watching teams cobble together clunky solutions from multiple tools, I've wondered if there is a better way. It turns out, not really.
That's why I'm building the better way!
User Mastery — the unified platform for product teams to announce updates, maintain a changelog, share roadmaps, provide help documentation and collect feedback.

What is User Mastery?

In simple terms, User Mastery is a platform designed to help product teams manage their relationship with users. I'm building tools that make it easier to create beautiful changelogs, announce updates, gather feedback, manage roadmaps, maintain helpful documentation and collect testimonials—all in one place.
Think of it as your command centre for user engagement. If you're a solo founder, a small startup, or a growing product team, then User Mastery is for you. It’ll give you the tools you need to keep your users informed, engaged, and excited about what you're building.
My goal is to help product teams tell users about new features (so they actually use them), gather meaningful feedback (so they build the right things), share plans (so users know what's coming), and provide help (so users don't get stuck).

My Build in Public Manifesto

Here's the thing: I believe in radical transparency. That's why I'm committed to building User Mastery in public.
What does that mean? It means you'll see everything—the wins, the struggles, the pivots, and the lessons learned along the way. I'll be sharing:
  • Our product roadmap and what features we're prioritising (and why)
  • Real metrics—user numbers, revenue, challenges we're facing
  • Behind-the-scenes decisions about positioning, pricing, and product direction
  • Honest reflections on what's working and what's not
Why build in public? Because I think the best products are built with their communities, not just for them. By sharing our journey openly, I hope to:
  • Get valuable feedback from people who actually care
  • Build trust through transparency
  • Inspire other founders and makers who are on similar journeys
  • Create a community of people who are invested in our success
Have a read of my full manifesto here.

How This Will Help Product Teams

If you're building a product, you know the struggle:
  • You ship a new feature but half your users don't even know about it
  • Users ask "what's coming next?" and you're scrambling to update a Google Doc
  • Your help docs are scattered across multiple platforms
  • Collecting and organising user feedback feels like herding cats
Have a read of the 12 main benefits of User Mastery here. 

Join Me on This Journey

This is just the beginning. Over the coming weeks and months, I'll be sharing updates, lessons learned, and milestones as we build User Mastery together.
If you're a product person, a founder, or just someone who cares about building better products, I'd love for you to follow along. Your feedback, questions, and ideas will help shape what User Mastery becomes. This blog is built using User Mastery, so let me know if you see any problems!
Follow with your favourite RSS/Atom feed reader.
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Day 13 - Being lean, getting user feedback and iterating
13 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
The lean startup approach is all about building, measuring, and learning quickly. Instead of spending months or years building the "perfect" product, if you’re a startup, focus on creating a minimum viable product (what’s called an MVP), get it in front of real users, and iterate based on actual real-world feedback.
Hey there!
The lean startup approach is all about building, measuring, and learning quickly. Instead of spending months or years building the "perfect" product, if you’re a startup, focus on creating a minimum viable product (what’s called an MVP), get it in front of real users, and iterate based on actual real-world feedback.
For User Mastery, rather than trying to build every feature I've imagined it to have, I’ll focus on its core functionality. What's the smallest version of this product that would still deliver real value? Ask yourself that same question for your own business.
So, that's the feature announcement system combined with basic help documentation. Roadmap, feature requests, and testimonials? Those can come later, once I've gotten some traction.
Scary to ship something that feels incomplete, sure, but trust the process.
I’m posting every weekday. See you tomorrow!
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Day 10 - Announcements, help docs, feedback, roadmapping—tools to help user engagement
10 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
One thing I've learnt is that while there are many tools that handle individual pieces of the problem I’m solving for, none of them create that seamless experience I'm after.
Hey there!
Big milestone day! It’s 10 days into my indie hacker journey. I've got a much clearer vision for “User Mastery” now—the SaaS I’ll be focusing my attention on.
One thing I've learnt is that while there are many tools that handle individual pieces of the problem I’m solving for, none of them create that seamless experience I'm after.
I’m know I’m not building a new market.
As an indie hacker, don’t go into new markets. Remember what I said before, don’t spend time validating the market. Find markets that already exist, figure out how you can be different or better, and go from there.
So, what I'm doing is taking existing tools that solve parts of the problem (announcements, help docs, feedback, roadmapping), and integrating them into a single, cohesive and compelling platform. Product teams will be able to create a unified experience that actually drives engagement and adoption.
It’ll be awesome! Super excited.
Today is Friday. Things are going to start moving very fast from this point. I'm posting every weekday. See you in a couple of days!
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Day 9 - I've decided to work on a tool to help product teams engage with users
09 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
What is it? User Mastery is a platform for product teams to announce features, share roadmaps, create help documentation, gather user feedback, and collect testimonials - all in one place.
Hey there! Day 9 of my startup journey!
Super excited today.
I talked about how it is hard to build in public, and how there doesn’t seem to be a platform to support this. But, it’s not just about building in public, right; it’s also challenging for new startups to connect, engage and get users excited about their product journey.
I've decided to build a platform called User Mastery to help with this!
What is it? User Mastery is a platform for product teams to announce features, share roadmaps, create help documentation, gather user feedback, and collect testimonials - all in one place.
I’m building this to scratch my own itch of course, but I’m also I'm solving a problem I've watched teams struggle with for years.
Super pumped. Super excited
I’m posting every weekday. See you in the next one! It’s time to get to work.
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Day 8 - Product teams don't seem to have an easy way to engage with users
08 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
I’ve been looking for a tool to share my progress, but there isn’t a single, unified and compelling platform to announce features, share a roadmap, write awesome help documentation and collect user feedback and testimonials.
Hey there! Day 8 of my startup journey!
It turns out building in public is a lot harder than I thought initially.
For years, I worked with product teams across startups, enterprises, and government orgs—and behind the scenes, it was always the same drill. A feature would launch, and users barely noticed. Or, they noticed and were confused. Or, they tried it, got stuck, and bounced.
Why? Because teams were patching together multiple different and disconnected channels to reach users: email blasts no one read, changelogs buried in footers, help docs siloed in some wiki, feedback locked inside some support app, and Zapier integrations that kinda/sorta work—but really, it was duct tape and chaos.
I’ve been looking for a tool to share my progress, but there isn’t a single, unified and compelling platform to announce features, share a roadmap, write awesome help documentation and collect user feedback and testimonials.
Is this a gap or what? I could build something to solve all that. Excited?
I’m posting every weekday. Talk tomorrow.
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Day 7 - Why build in public?
07 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
It's a way to be accountable. It's a marketing strategy. It's a way to build community.
Hey there! Day 7 of my startup journey!
I’m building in public, but why build in public you may ask?
I think there are really three reasons.
  1. It’s a way for me to be accountable. I’m compelled to work on my startup and chip away at it daily, because I need to have something to report, and hopefully there’ll be people that will keep me honest.
  2. Number 2 - It's a marketing strategy. It establishes credibility. In time, it’ll showcase my thought process and expertise, and that can be invaluable when I’m ready to launch.
  3. Number 3 - It's a way to build community. By being transparent, I can connect with potential customers or collaborators, and get feedback and support.
Is there more to it than just 1 minute videos? Oh Yes! Absolutely Yes!
I’m posting every weekday. Stay tuned because I’m going to take this to the next level in the coming days.
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Day 6 - Embrace your constraints
06 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
You can't afford to go out there, and create and validate a new market. Instead, as a strategy, pick an area that's big enough, where there are competitors, and big ones. They've done the market validation for you. All you need to do is carve a small percentage from them.
Hey there! It’s Day 6 of my startup journey!
As a new startup, it can be really distracting to talk to too many people. People will tell your idea’s not innovative enough, it’s been done before, or there are tons of competitors already.
They’ll tell you that you literally don’t stand a chance!
As an indie hacker, I think it’s important to embrace your constraints.
You have limited funds and time.
You can't afford to go out there, and create and validate a new market. Instead, as a strategy, pick an area that's big enough, where there are competitors, and big ones. They've done the market validation for you. All you need to do is carve a small percentage from them.
So, find a niche. Showing your target market why your solution is better, or simpler or cheaper. Your small size is an advantage. Just because something’s been done before, doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
I’m posting every weekday. See you tomorrow.
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Day 3 - Finding the right problem to solve
03 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
As a software developer, I'm naturally drawn to building solutions. Over the years, I've realised something important: Finding the RIGHT problem to solve is actually more important than having the PERFECT solution.
Hey there! Day 3 of my startup journey!
Just got back from the gym and excited for another day. Today, I want to touch on something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. And, that is:
Choosing the right problem to solve.
As a software developer, I'm naturally drawn to building solutions. Over the years, I've realised something important: Finding the RIGHT problem to solve is actually more important than having the PERFECT solution.
The challenge really is:
  1. Is this a problem that is genuinely painful
  2. Is this a problem something I'm uniquely positioned to solve
  3. Is this a problem people value enough that they’d pay for a solution
In my line of work, running a software development agency, I see this all the time. This applies to pretty much every type of work, not just startups.
Take a moment to reflect on this.
Today’s Friday. I’m posting every weekday. I’ll see you in a few days!
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