Your First 90 Days of Building a SaaS: MVP, Agile Tracking & the Right Tools

Launching a SaaS product isn't a sprint. It's a structured journey—especially for developers, indie hackers, and startup founders. The first 90 days set the tone. You move from an idea to a working product, navigate priorities, manage sprints, and make decisions that shape the future of your app.

This guide breaks the journey into clear phases. You'll learn to build your MVP, manage progress with Agile tools, and pick the right software stack to scale efficiently.

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Phase 1: Day 1–30 — Build What Matters First (The MVP)

Every developer has side project ideas. But not every idea becomes a product. In the first 30 days, your job isn't to build everything. It's to validate one core feature that solves a real problem.

What is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)?

An MVP isn't a half-baked product. It's a complete loop of value—a basic solution that works. You code only what's necessary to test your assumptions.

Read: How to Build an MVP — A practical breakdown for developers.

How to Prioritize Features

Use a scoring system (e.g., RICE or MoSCoW) to rank features. Prioritize:

• Painkillers over nice-to-haves

• Backend stability over frontend polish

• User feedback over internal opinion

Real-World Tip: Feature Flag Everything

You're likely to pivot. Use feature flags to toggle experiments without rewriting your codebase.

Tools for the MVP Phase

• Figma or Pen/Paper for UI mocks

• Firebase or Supabase for fast backend setup

• Vercel or Render for deployment

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Phase 2: Day 31–60 — Get Agile or Get Lost

You've shipped your MVP. Now what? You need to iterate fast, get feedback, and track progress. Agile helps you adapt.

Use Burndown Charts to Track Sprints

A burndown chart shows how much work is left in a sprint. It's simple and visual.

• X-axis: Time (sprint days)

• Y-axis: Remaining work (story points/tasks)

• Goal: Reach zero work by sprint's end

Burndown charts keep devs focused. You know if you're slipping before it's too late.

Read the Burndown Chart in Agile & Scrum, a developer-friendly guide.

Developer-Friendly Agile Stack

• Jira or Linear for sprint planning

• Teamcamp for combined task tracking, team communication, and burndown charting

• Loom for async updates

Real-World Tip: Short Sprints Beat Long Ones

Start with one-week sprints. You'll adapt faster. Bugs don't pile up.

Include Your Users Early

Even if your user base is small, start weekly check-ins:

• "What's working?"

• "What's broken?"

• "What would make this better?"

Build around real needs. Not guesses.

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Phase 3: Day 61–90 — Choose Tools That Scale with You

You've validated the idea. Users are coming. Now, you build for stability, not speed.

Software Tools That Help You Grow

Your tech stack now matters more. Technical debt is more complicated to fix later.

Read: Best Product Development Software — Includes roadmap, collaboration, and delivery tools.

Here's a short list of dev-favorite picks:

• Teamcamp: All-in-one for planning, sprint track, and async client updates

• PostHog or Amplitude: For product analytics

• Sentry or LogRocket: For monitoring and debugging

• Stripe or Paddle: For billing

Automate or Burn Out

Set up:

• CI/CD pipelines

• Error alerting systems

• Status dashboards

Real-World Tip: Don't Skip Documentation

Use tools like Docusaurus or Notion to document architecture decisions and APIs. It saves you hours later.

When to Start Thinking About Growth

Not in Month 1. Not even Month 2. But by Day 75, if things are working, start tracking:

• Activation metrics

• User retention

• Referral loops

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Final Thoughts: Stay Focused, Stay Flexible

The first 90 days of your SaaS journey will test your patience, habits, and technical decisions. You'll rewrite the code. You'll rethink UX. You'll fix bugs during dinner.

But it's worth it.

Build what matters first. Track your progress with clarity. Use the right tools to scale wise.

Whether you're going solo or leading a small dev team, your focus in these early days is not perfection. It's momentum. One useful feature. One happy user. One sprint at a time.

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Summary of Article

Launching a SaaS product is a 90-day journey of moving from an idea to a functioning product. This guide outlines three key phases: building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by focusing on the core feature that solves a real problem, leveraging Agile methods to iterate quickly and include user feedback, and selecting scalable tools for long-term growth. Prioritize features using a scoring system, employ short sprints for agility, and document critical tech decisions to manage technical debt. Ultimately, focus on momentum—creating valuable features and forming a loyal user base.