Project ideas
Each project is small enough to finish, real enough to use, and easy to show in a 30-second GIF. All of them work with free tools. Post each one on LinkedIn when it ships.
Pace — every path (you are using it)
A roadmap that re-plans itself. Shows React, TypeScript, tests and product thinking.
- v2 ideas: backup sync API, weekly notes, reminders, a read-only share link.
- LinkedIn angle: "I built the tool that tracks my own growth."
Ship Radar — Technical PM, Software Engineer
A dashboard of how a team ships, from the GitHub API: lead time, deploy frequency, PR size, review wait time. Free with the GitHub API and GitHub Pages.
- LinkedIn angle: "What 1,500 pull requests taught me about shipping."
Live price board — Software Engineer
A WebSocket server that fans out live prices to many browsers, plus a React client. Load test it with k6. Shows back end, realtime and performance — close to your trading work.
tiny-limiter — Software Engineer
A rate-limiter npm package: token bucket and sliding window, tests, benchmarks, docs. Small, finished and useful.
Product teardowns — PM, Technical PM
Written breakdowns of a real product: who it is for, the key flow, where users drop, 3 ideas with reasons. 2–3 pages with screenshots, posted on LinkedIn.
- Start with: the onboarding of a trading app, or the first-run experience of a developer API.
Meeting notes → action items — every path
Paste meeting notes, get owners, dates and decisions. Runs on a free local model with Ollama. Shows AI product sense and engineering.
Learning log — every path
A public repo of short notes, one per learning day: what, why it matters, one example. Shows steady work and clear writing.
Free tools for all of these
- Code and hosting: GitHub, GitHub Pages, GitHub Actions
- App: Vite, React, TypeScript, Vitest
- Design: Figma (free plan), Excalidraw
- Data: SQLite, or Postgres in Docker
- AI: Ollama (local models)
- Analytics: PostHog free tier, or log events yourself
- Load tests: k6
If a service blocks your region, pick the local option.