I recently launched a Cushion feature that I’ve personally wanted for a while. The feature is dead simple and easy to calculate yourself without software, which is why I haven’t been in a rush to build it. Every time I finish a project, however, I think about this feature, but then I get distracted and never end up building it. The other night, I had some free time and a thought crossed my mind, “As a user, what could I really use right now…”, and I immediately thought of this feature. Knowing it would only take me a few minutes to build, I knocked it out and launched it. Almost instantly, I heard from a user, “Oooh, I do this and didn’t even think to request it as a feature…” These are the best kind of features. By building for myself—as a freelancer and a user—releasing a new feature can sometimes feel like I’m reading a user’s mind (or digging deep into their subconscious for something they didn’t know to ask for, which is even more gratifying).

The feature I launched is “effective hourly rates”. For freelance gigs where I charge a fixed rate, by the end of the project, I want to know if I estimated well, or if I was so off that I had to endure a slow, painful decline into deep regret, which was commonplace when I was new to freelancing. You always remember the projects where your estimate wasn’t even close because you’re constantly thinking “Oof, I did not charge enough…” as the project continues to drag on. But I always felt like seeing a real number would hit harder—to the point where you might actually make a change instead of falling victim to freelancer’s amnesia. Beyond the feeling of knowing you underestimated or didn’t protect yourself from scope creep, being told you literally made half your hourly rate should be the wakeup call you need to either up your rate, improve your standard contract, or find better clients. And the math for this feature is as simple as it gets: how much money you made divided by how much time you spent on the project. That’s why this feature doesn’t require software, but it helps to see this number, track it over time, and revisit it when pricing your next gig.

I’m especially excited about this feature because I was able to tap into a user reaction that’s almost addicting as a builder. I feel one step ahead of my users this time not only because I’m a user myself, but because I’m a user with a builder’s mindset. I felt the need for this feature, then continued to pull on that string while also having the keys to the car. Even without any reactions from my users, this feature is incredibly useful for me, but as soon as the reactions started trickling in, the momentum started to grow as well. That’s why this one user’s reaction sprouted a fractal tree of ideas in my mind. Now that I can show you your effective hourly rate, where can we go from here? How else can I help you improve as a freelancer with existing data that might just be sitting there?

Cushion has been around for 12 years now, with some users still with me from its initial launch, so there’s a lot to work with. I just need to see it and build it.