Heya, it’s me again.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what to call the kind of work I do.

I’m a frontend developer, but that doesn’t quite cover the part where I’m figuring out what to build in the first place. I design interfaces too, but I don’t just hand them over when they’re done. And through Milk Krate, I’ve made things that don’t fit neatly on a screen at all.

The phrase I keep coming back to is 0→1 product engineer.

It’s a bit of a mouthful. But to me, it means taking an idea that’s still a little fuzzy and turning it into something someone can actually use.

Starting of with curiosity

BAAS started with a fairly ordinary routine: taking the same bus regularly. If you already know your route, you don’t necessarily need an app that opens on a big map. You might just want to know when to leave, when the bus is coming, and whether taking a cab is really worth it that morning. That question shaped BAAS into a small companion for the commute. It also meant thinking about more than the screen: live data, reminders, permissions, testing, and how the app should feel when someone opens it half-awake in the morning. I like that part of making things. Not just building the feature, but asking where it fits in someone’s day.

The first version is a decision

In my previous post, I wrote about cutting my favourite BAAS feature from the first public release. Alight alerts worked in testing, but getting background location through app-store review meant more work and more chances for the whole release to be delayed. It would have been nice to ship everything at once. But “everything” wasn’t the same as “what people need first”.

I’m learning that going from zero to one isn’t about fitting every idea into version one. It’s about deciding what the first version needs to do, making it usable, and leaving room to learn what comes next.

Not everything needs to be an app

The same thinking shows up in my other projects, even when the result looks different.

With Beau’s Move, the question was how to make an art-market booth feel like more than a table of things for sale. The answer became a shared chess game: each visitor made a move, left a position for the next person, and got a little keepsake along the way.

There was a web app behind it, but the app wasn’t the whole experience. There was also a physical board, printed receipts, artwork and things people could take home. I don’t think the most interesting part is whether something is called an app, a website or an installation. It’s whether the idea makes sense for the person using it.

So, what now??

I want to keep making apps of my own, and help other people bring their ideas to life through Milk Krate. Some of those ideas might start as a sketch. Others might start with a problem someone’s been putting up with for too long.

Either way, I’m interested in the bit between “what if?” and “here, try it.” That’s where things start to get fun :).

Talk to you soon~