Sickness Labs

Academy

22 diseases that kill indie projects — organized by the phase where they strike. Learn to recognize the symptoms before they become terminal.

Patient Zero

Founder Diseases

The diseases you carry as the person behind the project.

Single hand gripping dozens of tangled puppet strings controlling many small marionettes at once, dramatic side lighting from above, dark background, shallow depth of field

Founder Syndrome

When the founder becomes the bottleneck. Every decision flows through one person, and the project can't breathe without them.

Single burnt matchstick still faintly smoldering next to a row of fresh unlit matches, dark background, dramatic macro photography, warm ember glow against cold tones

Startup Burnout

The slow burn that turns passion into exhaustion. You're still shipping, but you stopped caring three months ago.

Cracked vintage mirror reflecting a distorted shadowy silhouette, fragments showing different uncertain expressions, dark moody room, dramatic side lighting, shallow depth of field

Imposter Syndrome

You shipped it, people are using it, and you're still convinced someone will figure out you have no idea what you're doing.

Ornate hourglass with sand frozen mid-fall suspended in time, golden grains hanging motionless in the air, dark background, dramatic macro photography, warm side lighting

Procrastination

Researching, planning, reorganizing — anything but the one task that would actually move the project forward.

Incubation

Idea Diseases

The diseases that strike before a single line of code is written.

Vintage compass with the needle spinning wildly in multiple directions at once, motion blur on the needle, dark wooden surface, dramatic overhead lighting, macro photography

Analysis Paralysis

Trapped in an endless loop of research, comparison, and what-ifs. You know everything about the market — except how to start.

Magpie bird surrounded by scattered glittering jewels, coins, and metallic trinkets on a dark surface, some objects half-buried, dark moody atmosphere, dramatic spotlight from above

Shiny Object Syndrome

Every week there's a better idea. The current project is 60% done but the new one feels 100% exciting.

Person mid-leap over a wide gap in a crumbling stone bridge, far side barely visible in fog, dramatic perspective from below, dark stormy sky, cinematic lighting

Validation Skip

Building first, asking questions never. The product is finished — but nobody was ever asked if they wanted it.

Infection

Build Diseases

The diseases that infect your product while you're building it.

Overloaded Swiss army knife with too many absurd tools sticking out, dark background, feature bloat metaphor

Feature Creep

The product started simple. Now it has a dashboard, an API, dark mode, and a settings page with 47 toggles. Nobody asked for any of it.

Simple wooden doorframe with dozens of progressively larger ornate frames layered around it expanding outward, dark room, dramatic spotlight from above, forced perspective

Scope Creep

The timeline was two months. Then someone said "while we're at it" and now it's month six with no end in sight.

Ornate golden jewel-encrusted hammer resting next to a single tiny simple nail on a dark wooden surface, dramatic side lighting, shallow depth of field

MVP Overengineering

Your MVP has a microservice architecture, CI/CD pipeline, and 90% test coverage. It has zero users.

Messy chess board with dozens of mismatched pieces crowding each square, some pieces knocked over, dark moody lighting, overhead view, shallow depth of field

Feature Prioritization

Everything feels urgent, nothing feels important. The backlog is a graveyard of half-started features and unranked ideas.

Symptoms

Market Diseases

The diseases that kill products after you build them but before they grow.

Large magnifying glass hovering over a crowd of small wooden figurines, one figurine glowing under the lens, dark background, dramatic spotlight, shallow depth of field

Customer Validation

You talked to five friends who said "that's cool." That's not validation — that's politeness.

Compass spinning wildly on a dark map with question marks, market direction uncertainty metaphor

Market Validation

The market research says there's a gap. But a gap in the market doesn't mean there's a market in the gap.

Puzzle piece floating above a puzzle board almost fitting but not quite, dark atmospheric lighting

Product-Market Fit

You have users, but they're not staying. You have revenue, but it's not growing. Something fits — but not quite.

Price tag with the number scratched out multiple times, pricing indecision, dark dramatic lighting

Pricing Phobia

Your product is free, freemium, or priced so low it signals "hobby project." Charging real money feels like a betrayal.

Critical

Launch Diseases

The diseases that keep your product from ever reaching people.

Finger hovering over a big red launch button trembling, dark dramatic close-up, launch anxiety

Launch Fear

The product is 95% ready. It's been 95% ready for four months. There's always one more thing before it's "really" ready.

No Distribution

You built it. Nobody came. Because nobody knew. Zero marketing budget, zero audience, zero plan to change that.

Empty theater with a spotlight on an empty stage, no audience metaphor, dark moody atmosphere

No Audience First

Launch day arrives and the only visitor is your own browser. You skipped the part where you build an audience before building the product.

MVP Launch

Your MVP launch strategy is "post on Reddit and hope." That's not a strategy — that's a wish.

Terminal

Graveyard Diseases

The diseases that kill projects slowly — or keep them undead.

Zombie hand reaching out of laptop screen in dark room, undead project metaphor, horror atmosphere