As of today, my blog does not have a search feature. I’ve been blogging daily and so far I’ve written 90 posts. I can’t tell you what all they were and I find myself referring back to them. I read them for myself, to share to other people, or for continuing an idea.

Today, my co-worker texted me: “You need a search feature on your blog. I can’t find a post.”

Pain Driven Development, or PDD, is the practice of writing software in such a way that you only “fix” problems when they are causing pain, rather than trying to preempt every possible issue. ― Steve Smith (@ardalis) ―

I can’t tell you how many times in the last 3 years I’ve thought about adding a search feature on my blog. I’ve researched over and over. Then, I wouldn’t get around to implementing it. I might have added it to a backlog and prioritized it. Months later, the idea would come back to my head and I would research it again. Maybe I would take take a bit more action on it.

I was trying to pre-empt a problem. The day someone couldn’t find a post on my blog. The irony is that I did not have many blog posts in my site. I only had about two pages of content.

YANGI. I didn’t need it.

Pain-driven improvements

Today, my co-worker had a trouble finding a post that he found useful. I’ve had the same painpoint too. I’ve been referring to these posts. But, I came up with a simple solution. Google.

site:gaunacode.com my search terms here

Using Google operators, I can limit the search to only my blog.

Now, I have a lot more content and I have a lot more visitors. I can’t assume that they know about this feature in Google. This is causing enough pain that I feel comfortable improving it. It’s going to be useful. It will provide value.

What about in your current processes or infrastructure is truly causing pain? And what are you trying to preempt?