Blog
Notes on deciding what to build, written while building Appray.
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17 September 2026
What I actually do with every feature request that comes in
There is no roadmap for Appray, just a plain note that grows and shrinks. The board I tried and abandoned, the three questions I actually ask, and a pattern that hid across three channels for eight weeks before I caught it. Read -
14 September 2026
How many people need to ask for a feature before you build it?
Someone told me the rule is five. I tracked every request for four months, and the count nearly cost me the feature that turned out to matter most. Read -
10 September 2026
Should I build an Android version?
Nineteen emails asking for Android since launch. The honest revenue maths said no. What actually changed my mind was reading all nineteen properly and noticing most of them weren't asking for what I thought. Read -
7 September 2026
Should you build a feature just because your competitor shipped it?
Three competitors added an AI priority score in the same six weeks. I got four hours into copying it for my no-AI app before I checked what my own reviews actually said. Read -
3 September 2026
When to kill a feature you already shipped
Appray hands out Kill verdicts for a living. It took me five weeks to give one to my own feature, and the number that proved it was pointless wasn't what finally moved me. Read -
31 August 2026
How to prove a feature before you build it
I once put a fake button in a test build to measure demand and didn't like how it felt. What I use instead, and the two-week rule that stops "prove it" quietly becoming "never". Read -
30 August 2026
A customer asked for a feature. Should you build it?
Someone emailed twice in a week asking for accounts. Here is the test I now run before building anything a user asks for, including the one I said yes to too fast. Read -
16 August 2026
The features you build because they are fun to build
Nobody sets out to build the wrong thing. There is a specific reason the unnecessary features always feel more urgent, and it is not laziness. Read -
15 August 2026
Feature prioritisation frameworks, honestly compared
RICE, MoSCoW, Kano, value versus effort. What each is genuinely good at, where each falls apart, and the problem all of them share. Read -
14 August 2026
How to decide what to cut from your MVP
My first feature list for Appray had thirty one items on it. The version that shipped had nine. Here is how the other twenty two went away, and which cut I got wrong. Read -
13 August 2026
Jobs To Be Done interview questions that get real answers
Everyone said they would use my first product. Nobody did. The problem was not the idea, it was that I asked people to predict the future instead of describing the past. Read