Some software only needs two users to be worth building.
Last week I built a school app for my daughters. Half a day, working from my phone, partly while waiting for my car to be repaired. One of their phones could not run the school's app. The interface was awkward for them. I wanted their lessons, breaks and free periods to make sense at a glance.
Two users, with a problem I could see up close.
That small scale is what interests me. It makes me reconsider which everyday problems are worth solving with software.
A need can be too specific for a supplier's roadmap and still matter every working day. Think of the spreadsheet someone rebuilds each Monday. Or the planner who keeps three screens open to answer one question.
With AI helping us build, more of those small frustrations may deserve a closer look. A useful tool might serve five colleagues in one department for years. The decision still needs care. How often does the problem occur? Can we access the data safely? Who maintains the tool when the source changes?
My daughters' app solves a daily frustration. Keeping it useful brings an ongoing responsibility.
That is the calculation I would want leaders to make: recurring value for the people using it, weighed against the full effort of keeping it running.
Which small frustration has your team stopped mentioning because a solution always seemed like too much work?