I write about marketing for indie hackers. I built a feature-to-benefit translator tool to help founders stop talking like developers and start selling like pros.
Then I looked at my own PCOS Meal Planner homepage and realized I wasn't following my own advice.
This is the uncomfortable but necessary process of applying my own marketing principles to my own product. Consider this a public teardown of my homepage, showing exactly what needs to change and why.
What I'm Looking At
PCOS Meal Planner helps women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome manage their symptoms through personalized meal planning. The product works—we have happy customers and solid retention. But the homepage? Needs work.
Looking at it with fresh eyes, I see the same mistakes I help other founders fix. I'm listing features when I should be addressing real pain points. I'm talking about what the product does instead of what women with PCOS actually get.
Let me walk through the current homepage and show you what needs to change. This is me taking my own medicine.
The Hero Section: Missing the Emotional Hook
Current headline: "Tired of ineffective PCOS advice?"
Not terrible. Acknowledges frustration, which is good. But generic. Every health app says something like this.
Current subheadline: "Break the cycle with the PCOS Meal Planner - your personalized guide to eating better, feeling better, and managing PCOS symptoms. Take control today!"
This is where I lose people. "Personalized guide to eating better" is feature language. "Managing PCOS symptoms" is doctor language. Neither connects emotionally with what women actually experience.
What I Should WriteStop guessing what foods make your PCOS worse. Get a meal plan that actually helps you lose weight, balance your hormones, and feel like yourself again—without counting every calorie or giving up foods you love.
See the difference? The new version speaks to specific frustrations: the guessing game, the failed diets, the feeling of not being yourself. Promises specific outcomes that women actually want.
The About Section: Too Much About Me, Not Enough About Them
Current copy: "Forget the frustrating cycle of weight loss attempts, endless medications, and living in discomfort. Introducing the PCOS Meal Planner. A meal planning guide that goes beyond temporary fixes to offer a comprehensive strategy, empowering you to ignite a transformation towards lasting health and happiness."
This reads like I wrote it to impress myself, not to connect with customers. "Comprehensive strategy" and "ignite a transformation" are meaningless marketing speak.
Women with PCOS don't wake up thinking "I need a comprehensive strategy." They wake up thinking "Why can't I lose these ten pounds?" or "I'm exhausted every afternoon" or "My skin is breaking out again and I don't know why."
Better ApproachYou've tried cutting carbs. You've tried keto. You've spent money on supplements that didn't work. The problem isn't your willpower—generic diet advice doesn't work for PCOS. Your hormones need specific support, and that starts with eating the right foods at the right times.
This version validates their experience and explains why previous attempts failed. Gives them permission to stop blaming themselves. Then offers a specific solution tied to their actual problem.
The Features Section: Classic Developer Mistake
I list three features:
- Customized Meal Plans
- Easy Recipes
- Expert Advice
With descriptions like "Get meal plans tailored to your specific needs and preferences" and "Benefit from advice and tips from nutrition experts."
This is exactly what I tell other founders not to do. I'm describing the product, not the outcome. Every meal planning app says they have "customized meal plans" and "expert advice."
Let me rewrite each one using my own framework:
Feature 1: Customized Meal Plans
Current: "Get meal plans tailored to your specific needs and preferences."
This tells you nothing. Tailored how? What needs? What preferences?
Rewritten as BenefitsStop the afternoon energy crashes. Get meal plans designed for insulin-resistant PCOS that keep your blood sugar stable all day. No more fighting cravings at 3pm or reaching for sugar when you're exhausted.
See what changed? I named a specific problem (afternoon crashes), explained the underlying mechanism (insulin resistance), and described the tangible benefit (stable energy, no cravings). This speaks to lived experience, not abstract "customization."
Feature 2: Easy Recipes
Current: "Enjoy simple, delicious recipes that are easy to follow."
Every recipe app claims this. Means nothing.
Rewritten as BenefitsCook dinner in 20 minutes without special ingredients. Every recipe uses foods you can buy at your regular grocery store. No hunting for exotic supplements or expensive specialty items—just real food that actually helps your PCOS.
Now I'm addressing a real barrier: time, complexity, and cost. Women with PCOS often work full-time, have families, and are already spending money on medical care. They don't have extra time or budget for complicated meal plans.
Feature 3: Expert Advice
Current: "Benefit from advice and tips from nutrition experts."
Generic. Vague. Uncompelling.
Rewritten as BenefitsFinally understand why your body works differently. Learn which foods trigger your symptoms and which ones help. Stop guessing and get clear answers about what to eat when you're dealing with cravings, bloating, or irregular cycles.
This version acknowledges the confusion and frustration of PCOS. Promises understanding, not just advice. Addresses specific symptoms women actually deal with.
The Testimonials: Missing Specificity
My current testimonials are fine but generic:
"The meal plans are fantastic and have helped me manage my symptoms effectively. I feel healthier and more energetic!" - Sarah M.
"The recipes are easy to follow and delicious. I love the variety and how they fit my dietary needs perfectly." - Emily R.
These sound like every testimonial on every health app. Not bad, but they don't tell a story or demonstrate specific value.
What I should be highlighting from actual customer feedback:
Better Testimonials"I lost 15 pounds in three months without feeling deprived. My cycles are finally regular again, and I have energy to play with my kids after work. I thought I'd always feel tired and heavy—turns out I was just eating the wrong foods for my PCOS." - Sarah M.
This testimonial includes specific numbers, addresses multiple symptoms, and shows transformation in daily life. Tells a story other women with PCOS can see themselves in.
The Recipe Section: Functional But Not Compelling
I show three recipes with basic descriptions:
- "A quick and easy version of the traditional Greek Spanakopita"
- "Delicious pancake or waffle batter as a breakfast"
- "Basil chicken with assorted vegetables in a rich alfredo sauce"
These descriptions could appear on any recipe site. They don't connect to PCOS-specific benefits or concerns.
Better Recipe DescriptionsSpinach and Egg White Crustless Quiche: High protein breakfast that keeps you full until lunch without spiking your blood sugar. Ready in 15 minutes.
Cream of Wheat Waffles: Satisfy your waffle craving without the insulin spike. Slow-digesting carbs that give you steady energy all morning.
Basil Chicken Primavera: Restaurant-quality dinner in 25 minutes. Balanced protein and fiber to help manage insulin resistance—tastes nothing like diet food.
Now each recipe description connects to specific PCOS concerns: blood sugar management, insulin resistance, satiety, and energy levels. Plus they address the desire to eat real, satisfying food.
The Call-to-Action: Too Passive
Current CTA: "Sign Up" and "Take control today!"
These are weak. "Take control" is vague motivation poster language. "Sign Up" doesn't tell you what happens next or why you should care.
Stronger CTA Options"Get Your First Week's Meal Plan" - Shows immediate value
"Start Eating for Your PCOS, Not Against It" - Reframes the problem
"See What to Eat This Week" - Concrete, specific, actionable
Each of these CTAs tells you exactly what you're getting and makes the value clear. They're specific instead of generic.
The Newsletter Signup: Buried Treasure
At the bottom of my page, there's a newsletter signup with the headline "Tired of PCOS Controlling Your Life?" and an offer for a free meal guide.
This is actually better copy than my main hero section. Acknowledges the core emotional problem (feeling controlled by PCOS) and offers immediate value (free meal guide).
Why is my best copy at the bottom of the page where hardly anyone sees it?
This should be higher up, maybe as an alternative entry point for people who aren't ready to sign up for the full product yet.
What I'm Learning from This Exercise
Spotting problems in other people's copy is easy. Spotting them in your own? Much harder. When I look at my homepage, I see all the work I put into building the product. I see the features I'm proud of. I see what I think is valuable.
But customers don't see any of that. They see words on a screen that either connect with their problems or don't.
My current copy fails at the basics I teach:
- Leads with features instead of benefits
- Uses generic marketing language instead of customer language
- Doesn't address specific pain points clearly
- Lacks the emotional resonance that drives decisions
I built the feature-to-benefit translator to help other founders fix these exact problems. Time to use it on my own product.
The Real Problem: Founder Blindness
When you build something, you become blind to how others see it. You know all the context. You understand the problems it solves because you lived them while building.
You assume potential customers share that context. They don't.
This is why I advocate so strongly for customer interviews and using actual customer language in your copy. Your words should sound like they came from your customers' mouths, not from a marketing playbook.
Looking at my PCOS Meal Planner copy, I see founder language. I see someone explaining their product. I don't see customer language. I don't see someone addressing real frustrations in words women actually use.
The Wake-Up CallYour product isn't what you built. Your product is what customers experience and how it changes their life. Your homepage should reflect that transformation, not your feature list.
Implementing Changes: The Plan
What I'm changing on the PCOS Meal Planner homepage based on this teardown:
Hero section: Rewrite to address specific weight loss and hormone struggles. Use concrete outcomes instead of abstract promises.
About section: Cut the marketing speak. Acknowledge failed diet attempts. Explain why PCOS needs different nutrition without medical jargon.
Features section: Transform each feature into a specific benefit tied to real symptoms. Use customer language about energy, cravings, and daily challenges.
Testimonials: Pull better quotes that include specific outcomes, numbers, and emotional transformation. Show the before and after story.
Recipe descriptions: Connect each recipe to PCOS-specific benefits. Mention blood sugar, insulin resistance, and satiety explicitly.
CTAs: Make them specific and action-oriented. Tell people exactly what they're getting when they sign up.
Overall tone: Less clinical, more empathetic. Talk to women dealing with frustrating symptoms, not patients receiving treatment.
Measuring What Matters
After implementing these changes, I'll track:
- Sign-up conversion rate from homepage visits
- Time on page (are people actually reading?)
- Newsletter subscription rate
- Bounce rate from different traffic sources
- Qualitative feedback from new users about what convinced them
The goal isn't just more signups. The goal is attracting the right people—women with PCOS who are ready to try a different approach to managing their symptoms through nutrition.
Better copy should bring in more qualified leads, not just more traffic. If my marketing analytics show increased signups but decreased retention, the copy is attracting the wrong people.
Why I'm Sharing This Publicly
Admitting your marketing needs work is uncomfortable, especially when you write about marketing. But this is the reality of building products.
You don't get everything right the first time. You build, launch, then realize your messaging misses the mark. The question is whether you recognize it and fix it.
I write for indie hackers who are learning marketing while building products. Showing my own struggles and fixes provides more value than pretending I have it all figured out.
Plus, publicly committing to these changes holds me accountable. Can't write about feature-to-benefit translation and then ignore it on my own homepage.
What You Can Learn from My Mistakes
Look at your own homepage right now. Really look at it with fresh eyes.
Are you describing features or promising outcomes?
Are you using your words or your customers' words?
Does your copy address specific pain points or make generic promises?
Would someone who doesn't know your product understand why they should care?
If you're honest with yourself, you'll probably find the same problems I found. Most founders do. We're too close to our products to see them clearly.
The fix isn't complicated, but stepping outside your founder perspective takes work. You need to see your product through your customers' eyes.
Talk to your customers. Listen to how they describe their problems. Note the specific words they use. Then use those exact words in your copy.
Transform every feature statement into a benefit. Use the translator tool if it helps, but the real translation happens when you understand your customers deeply enough to know what they actually want.
The Next Steps
I'm rewriting the PCOS Meal Planner homepage this week. I'll share before-and-after screenshots on Twitter as I implement each change.
This kind of public improvement process is what building in public should look like—showing real problems, sharing real solutions, and being honest about what doesn't work.
Your turn. Look at your homepage. Apply the same critical lens. Rewrite one section using benefit language instead of feature language.
Share your before-and-after. Tag @growth_pigeon so I can see what you change. We learn more from each other's real examples than from theoretical advice.
One More Thing
You can see other founders' messaging problems immediately. Your own? They're invisible until you force yourself to look.
I teach feature-to-benefit translation and built tools for it. But I still caught myself listing features on my own homepage like every other founder does.
The Real LessonIf you teach something, you better be doing it. This teardown isn't just about fixing my homepage—practicing what I preach matters. Your marketing advice is only as credible as your own implementation.
I built tools to help founders translate features into benefits. Now I'm using those tools on my own product. That's how it should work.
Your homework: tear down your own homepage the same way I just tore down mine. Be brutally honest. Identify every place you're talking about features instead of benefits. Then fix them.
Marketing is clarity and empathy. Understanding your customers well enough to describe their problems in their own words, then showing them a clear path to solving those problems.
Stop talking about what your product does. Start talking about what your customers get. That's the whole game.