How do you prepare/steps for a new project?

Posted by Fabulous_Variety_256@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 7 comments

Hey,

So I'm self-studying to become a junior full stack web developer.
I want to get some ideas from you, how do you get prepared for a new project you are building?

For example:
- Create schemas
- Draw the ui on paper or an app
- Write the whole project in plain English
- etc

I am already building a big project in NextJS with 500 commits already, but right now I want to create a second one for the cv.

Thanks for help!

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aqua_regis@reddit

You are starting too deep in.

The first step is to write down what your project should do, what features it should have - this is called a Functional Design Specification (FDS) document. This is the guideline for your project.

Everything else you state comes after that.

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Dull_Industry_8691@reddit

I agree with that! First thing I think about are the project requirements. Then I think about which tech stack would be useful and I also sketch out the UI.

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I usually start messy on purpose. Dump ideas, moodboards, random notes, even half baked sketches. Then I step back and figure out what the project actually needs to do before touching anything technical.

If I skip that part I end up redesigning everything later anyway. Learned that the hard way

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EnvironmentalDot9131@reddit

I always take the help of claude. As he can give me the best ways to start it.

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Repeat_Admirable@reddit

Since this is for your resume, figure out the one screen a recruiter will actually look at before closing the tab. Build backward from that exact view. Once you know what data that specific UI needs, it forces your hand on the database schema and API routes. You stop wasting days writing backend logic for endpoints nobody will ever hit. Just define the single view that proves you can code and only build the schema required to render it.

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Odd-Obligation790@reddit

Maybe cliche but I like to spitball with claude (or your favorite LLM) back and forth

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Evening-Living842@reddit

claude is great for breaking down the architecture too, i usually start by explaining my project idea and ask it to suggest database schema first, then move to api endpoints

for ui i still prefer sketching on paper though, helps me think better than figuring it out in code. then i make simple wireframes in figma before touching any frontend

one thing that helped me a lot is writing down user stories first - like "user can login, user can create post" etc. keeps me focused on what actually matters instead of getting lost in fancy features nobody needs