Building Software in Public and Why It Forces You to Solve Real Problems

Over the weekend, I read an article about building in public and it hit a nerve in a good way.

We spend a lot of time inside software. Building it. Breaking it. Rebuilding it. Shipping features. Fixing edge cases. Solving weird operational problems that only show up once real users touch the system.

And most of that work never sees daylight.

That feels backwards.

So I decided to start showing what we’re actually building, while we’re building it. Not polished demos. Not sales decks. Real development. Real decisions. Real tradeoffs.

Because building in public forces you to confront something important.

You cannot hide from bad architecture.
You cannot hand wave broken workflows.
And you cannot fake usefulness.

Software Is Just Problem Solving at Scale

Good software development is not about features. It is about removing friction.

Every tool starts with a problem:
• Data living in too many places
• Manual processes that do not scale
• Systems stitched together with fragile automations
• Teams relying on spreadsheets as a database
• Tools that technically work but are painful to use

Most companies do not have a technology problem. They have an operational clarity problem that shows up as a technology mess.

What we see over and over again is this pattern:
A team grows.
They add tools quickly.
They duct tape systems together.
It works until it doesn’t.

Then things slow down.
Data becomes unreliable.
Onboarding takes forever.
Nobody trusts the dashboards.
And small changes feel risky.

That is not a tooling issue. That is a systems issue.

What We Are Building and Why

One example I recently shared publicly is work we are doing inside CallGrade.ai.

On the surface, it is an AI powered call grading platform. Under the hood, it is really about something else.

It is about eliminating operational drag.

Previously, setting up call grading meant:
External automation tools.
Manual prompt management.
Transcription outside the app.
Knowledge bases living in separate platforms.
Reporting pulled from spreadsheets.

Each step worked. Together, they created friction.

So we started collapsing the system inward.

Now configuration happens inside the app.
Onboarding happens from a single settings panel.
Calls are uploaded, transcribed, graded, and stored in one place.
Knowledge bases live alongside the grading logic.
Manager feedback feeds directly back into the system.
Analytics are database driven, not spreadsheet driven.

The result is not just cleaner software.
The result is faster onboarding, fewer failure points, and a system that actually learns over time.

That is the difference between software that looks impressive and software that solves problems.

Building in Public Forces Better Decisions

When you show your work publicly, you are forced to answer hard questions:
Why does this exist?
Who is this actually for?
What problem does this remove?
What happens when this scales?

You stop building features for the sake of features.
You start building workflows that make sense.

It also exposes something else.
Most businesses are not struggling because they lack tools.
They are struggling because their tools do not reflect how the business actually operates.

That mismatch creates friction everywhere.

The Real Cost of Thorny Operational Problems

The most expensive problems are not the obvious ones.

It is not the bug that crashes the app.
It is the process that wastes five minutes per user, per day, forever.
It is the onboarding flow that requires tribal knowledge.
It is the system nobody wants to touch because it might break something else.
It is the report nobody trusts, so decisions stall.

These problems compound quietly.

And they almost always come from software that was never designed as a system.

How We Think About Solving These Problems

At DFY, we do not start with tools.
We start with outcomes.

We look at:
How work actually flows.
Where humans are compensating for bad systems.
Where automation should exist but doesn’t.
Where data should live but doesn’t.
Where AI can remove effort instead of adding complexity.

Sometimes that means fixing an existing platform.
Sometimes it means rebuilding workflows.
Sometimes it means custom software.
Often it means simplifying what already exists.

The goal is always the same.
Reduce friction.
Increase leverage.
Make the system easier to operate than the manual workaround.

A Quick Word on How We Can Help

If you are dealing with a thorny operational or software problem, you are not alone.

If your systems feel fragile.
If onboarding takes too long.
If your team relies on spreadsheets to glue everything together.
If your tools technically work but slow everyone down.

That is exactly the type of problem we solve.

We help businesses untangle messy operations, design smarter systems, and build or implement software that actually supports how the business runs.

That can look like:
Operational and systems audits
AI and automation strategy
Custom software development
Workflow redesign and implementation
Ongoing optimization and support

If you have a problem that feels complicated, unclear, or stuck, there is a good chance we can help you simplify it.

Reach out, tell us what is broken, and we will help you figure out the right path forward.