What it does
Explore the full Pokedex, build teams, trace evolution chains, and master the type chart in one fast, ad-free place, and if you collect the TCG, plan how your cards sit in a real 3x3 binder before you move a single one, fed by a Collectr CSV import.
Currently
Live and feature-rich. Browse all 1,025 Pokemon, build teams, trace evolutions, master the type chart, catch and collect, and play a daily Who's That challenge with a leaderboard. For TCG collectors there is Google sign-in plus Supabase cloud sync (your collection survives a browser clear), Collectr CSV import with set-name mapping, the Binder Planner moat, a card wishlist with a dream gallery, demo mode, and a progress dashboard. The honest gap is on the other side: real usage is unmeasured and distribution has not started, so the next move is instrument, then launch, then build.
Roadmap
/now-next-later-roadmapNow/Next/Later Roadmap- Instrument the 6 collection events + import funnel (the launch gate)
- Post the drafted r/PokemonTCG launch (binder screenshot + UTM)
- Search Console + indexing pass (sitemap, OG, structured data)
- Collectr alternative landing angle
- Binder-tip content series (5-6 value-first touchpoints)
- First-card celebration parity (manual / sample claim)
- Show TCGPlayer market price per card
- Binder-page + collection value totals
- 10-second interactive binder demo on the landing page
- Complete the Page suggestions (recurring reason + affiliate)
- Wishlist value + how close am I
- Binder Diff reorganization view (the recurring-use test)
- New-set re-engagement trigger
- Collection Wrapped / binder story (viral loop)
- Print-ready binder page export
- Language badges + non-English card display
Recently shipped
- Jun 15, 2026Pre-launch hardening: closed instrumentation gaps, rate-limited the public TCG read routes, added a privacy page, and canonicalized the tool URL to /pokemon/binder-planner.
- Jun 7, 2026Wishlist polish (nav badge, sort/filter, notes, bulk actions) and a full SEO, UX, a11y, and image-performance audit pass.
- Jun 6, 2026Added the card wishlist with dream gallery, a daily leaderboard, and an IA restructure cutting the nav from 11 links to 8.
- Jun 5, 2026Added Supabase cloud sync for all stores and a sprite proxy to fix broken card images.
- Jun 4, 2026Added Google sign-in, demo mode, the daily Who's That challenge, a collection progress dashboard, the Collectr CSV import funnel, and a binder SEO landing page.
- Jun 3, 2026Shipped the Binder Planner: cross-type detection, card ownership, shareable binder URLs, plus Team Builder and Evolution Explorer.
- Jun 2, 2026Shipped Pokemon Explorer: Pokedex browser, type tools, starter selection, the catch mechanic, and Who's That Pokemon.
How I know it's working
live data · last 30 daysUnique signed-in users who perform at least one collection action (add a card, import, move a card on a binder page, mark caught, wishlist, save a team) in a trailing 7-day window. Playing the daily challenge is deliberately excluded so gamification cannot inflate the headline.
pokemon_import_startedpokemon_import_completedpokemon_binder_viewedpokemon_collection_sharedHow it's built
How I built it
Pokemon Explorer is two things at once. On the surface it is a fast, ad-free way to browse all 1,025 Pokemon, build teams, trace evolution chains, and master the type chart, plus a daily Who's That game to bring people back. Underneath it is the tool I actually built for myself: a Binder Planner that previews and organizes physical 3x3 pages digitally before you move a single card, fed by a Collectr CSV import. That binder planner is the moat, and no other collector tool attempts it.
What the discovery surfaced
A jobs-to-be-done pass made the beachhead clear. Track-collection and organize-binder are the underserved jobs, and only one persona touches all of them: Kate the Binder Builder. Casual lookup and team building get people in the door, but they are table stakes, not why anyone stays. The North Star became Collection WAC, with the daily challenge split out as a companion metric so gamification can never make the product look healthier than the collection it is supposed to serve.
The honest situation
I ran the full product-strategy recipe twice. The first run, in early June, was framed around a pre-launch, no-auth product that needed to validate demand cheaply. Ten days later, auth, cloud sync, and nearly that entire roadmap had shipped, so I re-ran the strategy against reality. The result was uncomfortable and useful: the product is feature-rich, but real usage is unmeasured and distribution never started.
So the roadmap reorients around one sequencing law: instrument, then launch, then build. The pre-mortem named the real risk plainly. The top failure modes are not engineering, they are not running the test and building instead of distributing. The features are already here. What is left is the discipline to post the launch, read the cohort, and let the data decide what comes next.
The strategy behind it
A snapshot of the product process this app was built from. Each artifact comes from a k8 skill you can run yourself. It reflects the original plan, not the live state above.
Jobs to be done
/jtbd-analysisJTBD Analysis| When I… I want to… | Importance | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| When I'm arranging my collection into binder pages, I want to plan layouts that group cards logically with clean page breaks, so I can fill my binder without awkward gaps or orphaned cards. | high | low |
| When I acquire new cards, I want to catalog what I own in one place, so I can know exactly what's in my collection and what I'm still missing. | high | medium |
| When I look at my collection, I want to see how far I've come (caught, sets completed, binder filling up), so I can feel a sense of accomplishment and stay motivated. | high | medium |
| When I see a card I covet but don't own, I want to save it to a wishlist and admire it in a dream gallery, so I can keep my acquisition targets organized and feel the pull of the chase. | medium | medium |
| When I'm considering selling, trading, or insuring, I want to see estimated card and collection values, so I can make informed financial decisions and feel confident in trades. | medium | low |
| When I have a spare nostalgic moment, I want a quick, low-stakes Pokemon activity, so I can relive the joy without committing to a full game session. | medium | medium |
Persona
/persona-createPersona Create- Import a Collectr CSV and see it organized by type into smart binder layouts
- Preview a binder page before moving the physical cards, then share the layout with a link
- Watch the progress dashboard tick toward a milestone, with the collection safe in the cloud
- Collectr does not do binder layout planning
- TCGPlayer is for buying and selling, not organizing
- Multi-language cards are second-class citizens in English-focused tools
- No tool celebrates collecting or gives the cards I want a home
Persona
/persona-createPersona Create- Look up a type matchup or evolution fast, without ad-heavy wiki bloat
- Play a quick daily Pokemon game and land on the leaderboard
- Bulbapedia is slow and ad-heavy for a quick lookup
- No fun, quick Pokemon activity that isn't a full game
- He never touches the Binder Planner, so he is traffic, not collection value
Persona
/persona-createPersona Create- Mark Pokemon caught in My Pokedex with progress synced across devices
- Chase the next completion milestone and figure out evolution triggers
- The in-game Pokedex is functional but not emotionally rewarding
- No cross-game tracker (Legends vs Scarlet caught are separate)
- Serebii is comprehensive but ugly and overwhelming
Prioritization and risks(the internal detail)
RICE prioritization
/rice-scoreRICE Score| Feature | Reach | Impact | Conf. | Effort | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Post the r/PokemonTCG launch (binder screenshot + UTM) | 9 | 3 | 80% | 0.25 | 86 |
| Instrument the 6 collection events + import funnel | 10 | 3 | 100% | 0.75 | 40 |
| Search Console + indexing pass | 8 | 2 | 80% | 0.5 | 26 |
| Collectr alternative landing angle | 6 | 2 | 80% | 0.75 | 13 |
| Binder-tip content series (5-6 touchpoints) | 7 | 2 | 80% | 1 | 11 |
| Binder-page + collection value totals | 5 | 2 | 50% | 0.75 | 7 |
| Show TCGPlayer market price per card | 6 | 2 | 50% | 1 | 6 |
Pre-mortem risks
/pre-mortemPre-mortemThe thesis stays unvalidated: distribution brings traffic with no activation or retention, or no traffic at all, so after another quarter we still do not know if binder collectors exist and return.
highMitigation: Post the launch this cycle and treat it as the job. Instrument first so the cohort is readable, then read whether the right audience arrives, activates, and comes back.
The solo-dev build-instead-of-distribute trap: the comfortable reflex is to keep adding depth features while the highest-leverage move, posting the launch, keeps slipping.
highMitigation: Declare no new depth features until the first cohort is read. The roadmap exclusion line is the contract; A1 (the launch) is non-negotiable.
The wrong audience arrives: commodity lookup SEO pulls Casual Revisitors, not Binder Builders, so traffic looks fine while Collection WAC never moves.
mediumMitigation: Make the moat visible before sign-in (a 10-second binder demo) so the right audience self-selects, and re-target distribution at binder-intent search and communities.
The launch goes out un-instrumented, voiding every measurement and making the headline risk undiagnosable instead of merely unproven.
mediumMitigation: Hard gate: instrumentation ships and is verified on a real session before the launch post goes live. You cannot re-instrument a cohort you already lost.
Vanity-metric self-deception: signups and Game WAC accumulate and get celebrated while Collection WAC and week-1 return stay flat, so it feels like winning while the thesis quietly fails.
mediumMitigation: Keep the headline honest by construction: the Collection-WAC-vs-Game-WAC split means game actions cannot inflate the North Star. Review collection WAC and week-1 return weekly, never signups.