Journal
Notes from the workshop.
When I figure something out that I wish someone had told me, I try to write it down. No content marketing voice, no listicles, no AI slop.
Guides
Answers to what you want to know before you start.
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You have an idea for an app. What do you do first?
What happens when you bring me an idea for an app: I listen, learn your jargon and walk through the steps your user takes, with you.
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App, web app or website: which one do you need?
The difference between a website, a web app and a real app, what a browser can do on your phone, and when an app stays the better choice.
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What goes in a first version, and what can wait?
How to bring a long wish list down to a first version people can use, and what to do with everything that has to wait.
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What makes an app expensive or cheap?
The choices that set the price of an app, from the number of features to integrations and upkeep, and where you can save.
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Test your idea before you build it
Conversations, a clickable prototype and a simple landing page: cheap ways to test whether people need your idea, before there is any software.
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How does app store review work?
What Apple and Google check before your app goes live, why an app can be rejected, and what to have ready before you submit.
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Do you need the app store?
An app can also install from the browser, with no app store in between. What you gain, what you miss and how to choose.
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When has your spreadsheet grown too big?
Two signs that Excel or manual work is asking too much of you: you repeat the same steps, and you copy and paste a lot. What replaces it depends on the task.
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Custom software or an existing tool?
When an existing tool is enough, when custom software is worth it and how to combine the two, explained with no technical knowledge needed.
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Connect your software to your till and your accounting
What a software connection is, what an API does, and why it matters whether software may only read your data or may also change it.
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What can AI do in a small business today?
AI can take over repetitive work if it uses your own data and a person approves. Where to begin, how to catch mistakes and where your customer data goes.
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Who owns your code and your data?
Ask that question before you start with a developer. What paying does and does not settle, which accounts to check and how it works with me.
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An app that works with no signal
How an app keeps working in a basement with no signal, using WTN App as the example: save on the phone first, sync later and show where your work stands.
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What a multi-language website in Belgium needs
Which languages to choose, why each language gets its own address, what hreflang does and what to translate, right down to your forms and your privacy page.
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Does your contact form work?
A form can show a tidy thank-you page while the message reaches nobody. Here is how to test it yourself, and how to catch problems.
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What should you prepare if you want a website?
What to gather before you have a website built: your goal, your text and images, your logins and who makes the final decision.
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How to hire a freelancer
What to look for in a freelance developer: do they ask about your problem, show their work, communicate clearly, and who will own the code?
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Freelancer, agency or in-house?
What a freelancer, an agency and an in-house team each do well, and which questions help you choose. Written by someone with a one-person studio.
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How to write a brief, even if you are not technical
A good brief describes your problem in your own words. Which questions to answer, what you can leave open and what that looks like on paper.
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Your developer disappeared. What now?
Your developer has stopped replying and your software is still running. The order in which to regain access, see what exists and get someone to look at it.
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Questions to ask before you sign
Questions you can ask any developer before you sign, about who does the work, what is included, changes, ownership and what happens after launch.
- All 21 guides →
Build stories
How my products and projects come about.
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Building Felix for boutiques
Felix is my own product and the first pilot has yet to start. Which features came out of sales calls, and why a newsletter is not one of them.
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Why Felix sends nothing without the owner
Felix drafts messages, and the owner reads and approves them before anything goes out. Why that suits messages sent in someone's name.
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Why I built ReadyToBinge
ReadyToBinge is a side project for discovering new films and series. How I use it myself, and why a chat with friends got added.
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What I learned from WTN App
WTN App was my app for digital waste transfer notes in the UK. What I built, why it stalled and what I would do differently now.
Studio notes
About the studio and this site.
Engineering
For developers: how it works under the hood.
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Offline-first mobile: syncing with no signal
How WTN App worked with no signal: SQLite on the phone, an append-only event stream per chain, conflict rules per role and a QR code handoff.
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Connecting to Exact Online, NetSuite and Business Central
The differences between the APIs and authentication of three ERP systems, for developers who have to build against them.
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A PWA next to a native app
ReadyToBinge runs as a PWA in the browser and as a separate app in the stores. What a PWA takes technically, what service workers do and where iOS draws the line.
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Client projects on Cloudflare Workers and D1
What Workers and D1 do well, where their limits are and which kind of project the combination suits. For developers.