My Plan Before Coding

Source: Dev.to

1️⃣ The Strategy (The “Ask”)

Three Critical Questions

• Who is this for? (Target Audience)
• What exact problem am I solving? (Pain Points)
• What does success look like? (Definition of Done)

Example Case: Digital Marketplace

• Users: Creators selling ebooks, courses, and digital assets.
• Problem: Manual payment verification and insecure file delivery.
• Success: A creator uploads a file, a user pays via local gateways (e.g., Paystack), the product is delivered instantly, and earnings reflect in a dashboard.

2️⃣ Defining the MVP

• Identity: Authentication with User & Creator roles.
• Management: File upload and storage for creators.
• Checkout: Integration with local payment gateways.
• Verification: Robust webhook handling for payment status.
• Delivery: Automated email/secure download links.
• Finances: A wallet system to track creator balances.

3️⃣ System Design (High‑Level Thinking)

User → API → Backend → Database

4️⃣ Database Design (The “Critical” Step)

-- Users
CREATE TABLE users (
    id          SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    email       VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    password    VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    role        VARCHAR(50)  NOT NULL   -- creator or customer
);

-- Products
CREATE TABLE products (
    id          SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    creator_id  INTEGER REFERENCES users(id),
    title       VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    price       DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
    file_url    TEXT NOT NULL
);

-- Orders
CREATE TABLE orders (
    id          SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    user_id     INTEGER REFERENCES users(id),
    product_id  INTEGER REFERENCES products(id),
    status      VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL   -- pending, paid, failed
);

-- Transactions
CREATE TABLE transactions (
    id          SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    order_id    INTEGER REFERENCES orders(id),
    amount      DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
    reference   VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    status      VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL
);

-- Wallets
CREATE TABLE wallets (
    creator_id  INTEGER PRIMARY KEY REFERENCES users(id),
    balance     DECIMAL(12,2) DEFAULT 0
);

5️⃣ Offloading Background Tasks

• Emails: Sending purchase confirmations.
• Retries: Handling failed payment verification pings.
• Security: Generating expiring, one‑time‑use download links.

6️⃣ Security Thinking (Day Zero)

• Validation: Strict input sanitization to prevent injection.
• Auth: Protecting endpoints with JWT or session‑based security.
• Storage: Using signed URLs to ensure only paid users can access files.
• Rate Limiting: Protecting APIs from brute‑force or DDoS attempts.

7️⃣ Infrastructure & Deployment

• Containerization: Docker for local development and production consistency.
• Hosting: Scalable providers like AWS or DigitalOcean.
• Storage: S3 or Cloudinary for reliable asset hosting.

What do you think? Do you have a different planning process, or do you prefer to “build and break” as you go? Let’s discuss in the comments!