Don't reinvent the wheel is very common while building tech.
But what does it even mean and when is it applicable?
Here are the 4 situations when this common phrase is applicable to you:
❓Is your startup/product in it's early days?
❓Are you navigating PMF (product market fit)?
❓Do you have resources (time, budget, team) to build things from scratch?
❓Is your team skilled enough to pull off the non-functional part?
Let's look at the first 2 pointers here.
In the early days, speed of execution is of utmost important. Chances are your current product might turn out completely different 2 years down the line as you navigate PMF and users feedback.
Your goal initially, is the product and business, not tech, so its not worth putting so much effort into something which you may eventually change/remove down the line while there are already existing solutions out there.
Hence, it is in your best interest to leverage existing solutions.
❌ Instead of building your own backend + database, ✅ use Backend as a service.
❌ Instead of managing/hosting your own servers, ✅ use Managed services.
❌ Instead of building a feature which already has existing APIs in market, ✅ use the existing APIs from the market.
In short, in the early days, use as much managed hosting/services/APIs as you can.
Will cover the remaining 2 points in the upcoming post.
Edit: Here is the part 2 for this post: https://www.leansoftware.dev/post/don-t-re-invent-the-wheel-pt-2