Founder's Journey

Read our latest company news and announcements, as well as useful insights from our team here at User Mastery.

Day 23 - Using My Own Changelog Platform
22 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
A milestone moment—I made my first changelog post using User Mastery’s own Changelog platform
Yesterday was a milestone moment—I made my first changelog post using User Mastery’s own Changelog platform. That’s right, I’m now dogfooding my own product—a term which means you’re using what you’re building.
There’s something powerful in that. I can immediately see what works and what doesn’t. I spotted six things I need to improve just from publishing that one post. I’m getting feedback from my own experience and therefore I’m building something I want.
If you’re interested, my post is about adding this new feature called “Collection Groups”, which is a way of organising related collections together in a changelog to help with feature discovery. Head on to https://usermastery.com to read about it.
I’m posting every weekday. See you tomorrow!
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Day 22 - Productivity Hack That Works Is Picking The Right 3 Things To Work On
22 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
Don't pick 3 hard things. Don't pick 3 easy things. Pick One hard, One important, One quick. Try It—it works!
Hey guys,
This productivity hack actually works, unlike everything else.
Every morning, pick your Top 3 tasks. But here's the trick most people miss:
  1. Task 1: Pick something hard. The thing you've been avoiding. Do it first, while your brain is fresh.
  2. Task 2: Pick something that moves the needle. Not busy work—something that actually matters for your goals.
  3. Task 3: Pick a quick win. Something you can knock out in 30 minutes. This keeps momentum going.
Don't pick 3 hard things—you'll burn out and end up doing only one thing.
Don't pick 3 easy things—you won’t get very far if you do.
Pick One hard, One important, One quick.
Once you finish a task, immediately add another one of the same difficulty level to replace it. Keep your list at 3 tasks throughout the day, but only work on that after you’ve finished the other two.
Just a simple tip, but it works. Try it.
I’m positing every weekday. See you tomorrow!
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Day 21 - Apple Listened To User Feedback
20 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
They've added a setting to toggle Liquid Glass from being Clear to Tinted. Clear is transparent and the default. Tinted reduces the background bleed and makes things way easier to read.
Apple has just released iOS 26.1 Beta 4. They’ve actually listened to user feedback and have added a setting to toggle Liquid Glass from being Clear to Tinted. Clear is transparent and the default. Tinted reduces background bleeding through and makes things way easier to read.
Even for a big company like Apple, user feedback isn't just nice-to-have—it's essential for building products people actually want. That’s how you make users happy.
Super happy Apple’s doing this.
Products that succeed are built by teams that actively listen to users. The ones that fail are built in isolation.
User Mastery is all about helping teams engage with users. We’re making it easy for product teams to collect feedback, announce features, create knowledge bases and communicate roadmaps. We’re launching soon—join the waiting list to get exclusive offers.
I'm posting every weekday. See you tomorrow!
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Day 20 - Three Things Productivity Tip
20 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
My system: Every morning, I write down 3 things I must do.
Here’s a Productivity Tip!
Do you know what kills productivity?
It’s starting the day without knowing what you need to accomplish. You bounce between tasks, chase notifications, and by 5pm you've been busy all day, but haven’t achieved what’s important.
My system: Every morning, I write down 3 things I must do.
Not 10 tasks. Not vague goals. Just 3 specific things I WILL complete.
Today for me:
  • Code a Reaction feature for User Mastery's help docs, so visitors can thumbs up or down a page
  • Install some kind of web analytics, so I know where traffic is coming from
  • Fix a quirky little bug affecting the mobile side navigation
Three things. Clear. Achievable. Non-negotiable.
By end of day, I know I moved forward.
I'm posting every weekday. See you tomorrow!
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Day 16 - Stay Focused, Don't Get Distracted
16 October 2025 — Dave Cheong — Founder's Journey, Weekday Video Updates
When building a product, especially as a solo founder, it's so easy to get distracted. There are a million things you could be working on—marketing, design, new features, SEO, social media, partnerships. The list is endless.
Hello! Day 16 of my indie hacker journey.
When building a product, especially as a solo founder, it's so easy to get distracted. There are a million things you could be working on—marketing, design, new features, SEO, social media, partnerships. The list is endless.
But here's the thing: you can't do everything at once. If you try, you'll spread yourself too thin and make no real progress on anything.
Be ruthless. Right now, my focus is simple: get an MVP built.
The true lean approach would be: talk to potential customers first, validate, validate, validate, and maybe even pre-sell the solution before writing code.
I could do that, except I know regardless of what startup I work on, I need the benefits that come from User Mastery. It’s central to my overall strategy and it won’t be wasted time.
I'm posting every weekday. See you tomorrow!
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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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