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One thing I've learned from building products:
The hardest part isn't building the solution.
It's deciding what not to build.
As engineers and founders, we're naturally drawn to possibilities.
A new feature.
A new technology.
A new integration.
A better architecture.
Another automation.
And before we realize it, a simple product can become unnecessarily complicated.
I've started looking at product decisions differently.
Before adding something, I ask:
→ Does this solve a real user problem?
→ Does it create measurable value?
→ Will users actually use it?
→ Does the complexity justify the benefit?
If the answer isn't clear, the feature probably doesn't belong in the product yet.
Good engineering isn't about how much we can build.
Good product thinking is knowing what deserves to be built.
That's a lesson I'm carrying into everything I build at BETA Edge.
Build less.
Solve more.
#productdevelopment #softwareengineering #productstrategy #technology #founder #entrepreneurship #betaedge
The network for creativity
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Most SaaS products don’t need more features.
They need clearer priorities. 🎯
As products grow, it’s easy to keep adding dashboards, filters, settings, and new flows.
But for users, more options often mean more friction.
The best product experiences usually do a few things really well:
✅ Make the next step obvious
✅ Show the right information at the right time
✅ Keep complex workflows feeling simple
✅ Remove decisions users shouldn’t have to make
Good SaaS design is not about making everything minimal.
It’s about reducing the effort required to get value from the product. ✨
That’s the kind of product experience I enjoy designing: clear, scalable, and built around real user workflows.
This design got rejected.
It was a dark, dramatic crypto app built around a 3D gold ring that grew with your portfolio. I was really proud of it.
I told him this would make Leap stand out from every other trading app.
He said:
"I don't want to stand out. I want people to find what they need and get it done."
Honestly, I was a bit annoyed at first. Then it hit me, and he was right.
Nobody opens a finance app to admire it. They want to check their balance, make a trade and get out.
We went with something much simpler and cleaner.
Design isn't about standing out. It's about making things work.
Meet Otto: the AI command centre for product managers
I designed and shipped Otto, a web and desktop workspace that gives product managers one place to run their product, plus three AI tools that take over the slowest parts of the job.
The problem. A product manager is a bit of everything: part planner, part QA tester, part researcher, part design critic. Yet the tools we’re given are built for someone else. Trello is too simple, ClickUp is built around designers and Jira is built for engineers. So the work ends up scattered: tasks in one tool, the roadmap in another, QA in a spreadsheet and competitor research buried in browser tabs. Reviews and audits get pushed back because they take days. Otto pulls all of it into one place and does the slow parts for you, so it feels less like another tool to manage and more like an assistant that has your back.
What I built
Command centre: dashboard, projects, tasks, roadmap, OKRs, decisions and stakeholders, with portfolio health and team workload worked out from live tasks.
Product reviews: Otto opens your product in a real browser on desktop and phone, audits UX, QA and accessibility, and files each finding with screenshot evidence, ready to turn into a task.
Competitor research: Otto visits competitor sites, measures their colours, fonts, contrast and stated pricing, and summarises what everyone does and what nobody does well.
Design review: Otto scores artwork against its brief out of 100 and names the change that moves the score most.
My role. Product vision, UX, design system, and the build itself. I’m a PM who ships with AI: I took Otto from idea to a live web and desktop app.
Want something like this for your product? I offer AI-built MVPs, PRDs your developers can build from, and product and UX audits. Message me here on Contra.