Design Doc for a Side Project

I've never created a formal "design doc" for a side project. But I have done what you're describing: writing down, in detail, what I plan to do and what are helpful links or UI inspiration.

This has two benefits:

1. This helps you unblock yourself when you lose steam. Writing down the next steps is a way to help your future self.
2. If you write your plan (and what you did) methodically over time, this document effectively creates a design doc, which is good for your reflection + learning.

If you're just starting out with side projects and/or are an earlier-in-career engineer in general, this is a great thing to do! 90%+ of the time, I recommend that engineers write more for whatever challenge they're facing - You'll be surprised at how many problems are solved with more writing.

However, I have 2 caveats:

• As you get more senior and seasoned with side projects, you probably won't need these anymore. I haven't written a doc for a side project in a long, long time because I've gotten so good at internalizing everything
• If your design doc is too long, that's probably a sign that you aren't following the advice from my course and are building something too complicated. It shouldn't be anywhere near the length of a formal design doc for a meaty project at a Big Tech company, like the one you can find in my system design course here: System Design Masterclass: Shipping Real Features To Production