Recently, Serum's long-term vision document was released, and many people came to ask us how to create our own projects on Serum: what project should we create? How to get started? Who do I need to cooperate with?

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What kind of project can be called a "great project"?

A lot of cool things are popping up all over the world. Most of these will just be a whim project that dies, but a few will grow and thrive. Which projects can develop and grow?

First of all, it is necessary to state that I do believe that every project should have a big idea, or at least the goal is to make the project bigger. That's where all the value and use lies.

You might be very lucky and catch a fleeting opportunity like you catch a lightning bolt, but it's basically the equivalent of winning the lottery. Or, you can consciously create and seize opportunities to maximize your chances of big results.

So, what conditions should a project, especially a project built on Serum, develop and grow?

1) The project should have a practical use;

2) The construction of the project should be relatively perfect;

3) The project should attract a large user base.

How to define practical use?

When you're thinking about a project, you should first ask yourself: what do people want? Click here to view a list of projects that have already been requested, this list by no means represents all projects that can be done! I'm sure there are thousands of other projects that could do great work!

Just make sure that, in theory, a lot of people are happy that the project you're building exists, and you're good to go. Most of the big projects in DeFi are projects that people want and use: borrow/borrow, DEX, oracle databases, etc. Even among other forks, tenacious projects have similar characteristics: continue to build, push the project further, or continue in a different direction than previous similar projects.

How to define a perfect project build?

Some of the suggestions under this one are super general principles that apply everywhere: improve things instead of going back. But there are also some very specific recommendations.

Click here to view a list of common feedback on the Serum project. Be sure to read through! Also, think hard about what it would be like for the average end user to use the product. A common mistake many people make is to forget that the average user doesn't know as much as a programmer. People really need a GUI (graphical user interface), and they want the GUI to be intuitive and easy to understand, and they can understand how to operate it at a glance, without having to look it up on Github. So please put extra effort into designing your GUI. Small designs such as reducing the number of clicks for common operations will improve the user experience a lot.

Again, make sure your product works and doesn't have bugs. Personally, I think the matter of "review" is actually a bit overemphasized. But the reality is that most projects have bugs, and they need a full fix before they can even start reviewing. Many projects that pass the audit still have fatal flaws. Therefore, it is suggested: go through all the general processes of testing products first; then conduct stress testing; it is best to ask other experienced and smart people to help.

How to define can attract a large number of user groups?

In a way, this is the hardest part of creating great things. Even if you create the best product in the world, if no one uses it, that's basically zero.

Of course, there is no way and no need to define the user problem in detail at the beginning. But it does require a more important guiding direction. How do you ultimately push your product to users?

Here are some options:

1) If you have a large following, show them your product;

2) If you are good at marketing and marketing, then show your skills to promote products;

3) You can also hire a team responsible for things like marketing and customer service;

4) You can also join hands with existing projects and use their power to promote your products;

5) In another case, if your project is very practical, then you can also promote it through advertisements.

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In view of the three main factors mentioned above, some corresponding suggestions will be given below.

How to build a practical project?

1) Browse Serum project ideas here;

2) Ask everyone’s opinions on Serum’s Discord or WeChat community;

3) Think about what kind of practical product you want and create it;

4) Think about what things other than Serum (or DeFi or even the entire cryptocurrency) can be improved through chaining;

5) Ask others for good ideas;

6) Write down all your ideas and show them to other people one by one, asking for their feedback (again, Discord is a great place to ask for opinions!);

7) Try to plan an annual revenue forecast, which can also be used to prove to yourself that this practical project can indeed be realized.

How to perfect the construction?

1) Click here to view the project construction suggestion document;

2) Create a GUI;

3) Click on each function that the user may use, and correct the places that are not easy to use;

4) Add as many instructions as possible to the GUI, and try to make the GUI understandable at a glance;

5) Let your friends try your product and observe where they will be confused;

6) Observe and study how other projects are built, and learn from good places;

7) Use a large amount of experimental data to test the stability of the project;

8) Make sure you understand the entire process of the system, and the process is reasonable and not redundant;

9) Ask others if there is room for improvement;

10) Ask others to check the code to make sure there are no loopholes.

How to attract a large user base?

1) Many people want to issue tokens. I'm not trying to tell you that you can't issue it, but before issuing a pass, you must make sure that you really have a project.

2) If you really want to issue a certain pass, you can use a wealth of resources, which can greatly simplify the entire issuance process!

• Click to get token casting GUI

• Add the trading market of your issued token to DEX or Swap

3) Extensively obtain feedback and suggestions from your users and testers, and improve the product accordingly

4) Use all available communication channels to promote your products, such as word of mouth, Twitter, etc.

5) If you don't want to be the main marketer yourself, hire a professional marketer or collaborate with other professional marketers

6) Consider finding an app that already has a solid user base and build your own project on top of it

• Bonfida is a great resource to consider working with!

7) Always aim to move the project forward; don't stop just because you've already released a version. You need to constantly update and iterate to make the product better!