The Proofing Room Issue #06

When Feedback Forces You to Choose Between Speed and Soul

Week three is wrapping up, and I’ll be honest, we're feeling the pressure. Less than two weeks to launch, and the feedback on our landing page just forced us into some uncomfortable decisions about speed versus getting it right.

How to Process Brutal (But Accurate) Product Feedback

We launched our first iteration of the Virtue landing page this week. The feedback came fast and brutal - but it was exactly what we needed to hear.

Alan's take hit hardest: "It gives me 'try-hard alpha male' energy. Makes the product feel more like a fitness hustle than a tool for character development."

The feedback kept coming: "Build your character daily" sounds nice but tells me absolutely nothing. The hero section looks like every other app. Where's the hook? Why should I care?

One piece of feedback particularly stung because it was so accurate: "We need users to project themselves into the archetype, not feel intimidated by some jacked dude in sunglasses."

When Side Projects Are Killing Your Main Project

Here's where I need to own up to something: What started as me poking around on Replit turned into a full blown side quest. That's on me.

We've spent way too much time perfecting the landing page when we should be building the actual app. The cracking statue concept? Feels out of place with our aesthetic. The messaging "Virtue is a habit tracker that builds your identity around 7 core virtues"? Still not quite right.

Alan's description is much better: "Virtue is an identity-based habit tracker meant to align your goals with your values"

But here's the hard truth: Every hour spent perfecting copy and imagery is an hour not spent on core app functionality.

Why Technical Debt Always Costs More Than You Budget For

Meanwhile, we've been battling archive issues that prevent new app builds. It's not always clear why it happens; the devil really is in the details with software development.

These aren't sexy problems to solve, but they're the reality of shipping software. Sometimes you spend entire days just trying to get your development environment working again.

Two weeks out from launch, every lost day to technical issues feels crushing

Our Complete TikTok Marketing Strategy for Product Launch

Since we're running short on time for traditional marketing, we're betting everything on TikTok. Next week we're getting dedicated phones and data plans for a focused social media push.

The game plan:

1. Warm up accounts for 1-2 days

2. Post 1 video/day after warmup

3. Monitor view counts (TikTok tests with a few hundred viewers first)

4. Test different formats to find our viral template

We've scraped 46k hooks from TikTok for testing and experimentation. If we get stuck at 0-100 views for a week, we'll know we're shadowbanned and need to adjust.

Candidly, none of us are experts in this. We've been studying extensively, but we're going to learn a lot in the process. Growing consumer apps is no joke, and building an audience from scratch is table stakes.

Deciding What Really Matters Under Pressure

Here's what this week taught us about building under pressure:

Perfect is the enemy of done, and getting distracted by side quests is the enemy of prioritization.

We could keep iterating on the landing page forever, but if the app isn't ready, it doesn’t matter.

Sometimes, the most important decision is knowing when to stop refining and start shipping.

What's Next: The Final Sprint

Between now and Tuesday, we'll be:

1. Finalizing the landing page with minimal changes (seriously, no more side quests)

2. Resolving archive issues and getting back to stable builds

3. Setting up our TikTok content creation workflow

4. Focusing exclusively on core app functionality

Try Virtue for iOS

Final call for beta testers! Reply to this email if you want to test the complete experience before we launch to the world.

With less than two weeks left, your feedback could shape what thousands of users experience on day one.

Help Us Build in Public

Finding this valuable? Forward it to someone who appreciates the messy reality of shipping products under pressure. These final weeks separate good intentions from actual launches.

Talk to you all on Tuesday for our final week push.

— Colin, Alan, & The Torta Studios Team

P.S. What's the hardest decision you've had to make when running out of time on a project?