Thanks for sharing an honest and balanced take after going down a path that many people would be wondering about. In the last six months I’ve built a product from scratch that I’m in the process of commercialising and I have also found a renewed appreciation of all the things that aren’t the coding, the latest being the hoops I need to jump through to get satisfractory app signing going for the Windows version of my product as a Mac-based developer. Your issues with customers not liking what you give them after a wrong assumption gets baked in rings true to me, and I’ve gained a lot more confidence using some of the spec-driven development tools and as of this week, Matt Pocock’s new /wayfinder skill to make sure the path through the fog is clear enough to proceed before starting. highly recommended.
All word of mouth from former colleagues, friends and family, who gave me a warm intro to people looking to have someone come talk to them. Good luck!!