1. Context

While such a platform can serve several types of users, there are 3 primary segments of users:

1. Professionals & students who want to earn side income alongside their full-time jobs/studies
2. Stay-at-home parents who want to have a flexible source of income on the side
3. People who are seeking a more flexible lifestyle instead of a traditional full-time job

There is also the other potential side of users which is the companies and businesses that hire people for part-time jobs, fractional work, side gigs, etc. 

At this initial stage, I chose to focus on the local market (Morocco) and specifically on segment 1. This is because it’s the most visible segment spotted through my observation of online communities; this makes it the most accessible segment to identify, research, and interview.

I combined an online survey with conversations and observations from Moroccan online communities (Facebook groups, Reddit, etc.) where people discuss related topics such as freelancing, remote work, and additional income opportunities.

The goal was not only to validate the existence of the problem, but also to understand what this segment expects and needs from a solution.

The survey was posted in a small Discord group of people who attended a paid course about side hustling for full-time Moroccan employees. Here are the key results that will be used to shape the product: 

• 64,3% prefer to do their side job hunting on weekends (they voted for Saturday as the best day for them), while 35,7% preferred Monday)
• They are willing to dedicate 10 to 30 hours to a side job (with 57,1% willing to dedicate only 10 hours)
• Both Morocco-based and people living outside of Morocco are interested in finding side jobs 
• They have acquired some skills through their current studies/work and want to use them to generate side income

User persona

The initial version was launched in late 2024 with a simple landing page to capture leads and test interest. 

Then, the current version was built and beta-launched in late 2025: sidejobs.ma

Constraints:

As a solo project, the MVP had to be built within a limited set of resources. These constraints directly shaped the scope of the MVP:

MVP intent: reduce the time and effort needed for side job research through the delivery of curated opportunities that are already filtered for relevance and accessibility.

Key assumptions:

• Users value curation more than volume
• Users prefer opportunities delivered to them rather than actively searching
• Users prefer side job opportunities that are remote, flexible, and require a few hours per week 

Product decisions:

Core components:

• Manual research and filtering of side job opportunities (to ensure quality at this stage)
• Regular delivery of opportunities once a week, specifically on Saturday 
• Email as the primary delivery channel (for more convenience)
• Categorization of opportunities based on location (Morocco vs. global opportunities) and skills (social media & marketing, content, design, web development, project management, etc.)
• Display of the opportunities' details (hours needed, pay, etc.) to make it easier for users to scan opportunities 

Tools used: MailerLite, HTML & CSS, and APIs

User journey: 

The user journey was intentionally minimal to reduce friction: users only needed to subscribe once with their name and email. From there, curated opportunities were delivered directly to their inbox every Saturday, where they could quickly scan the opportunities, select the ones relevant to them, and apply through the original source.