Grace Mitchell

We had this weird situation where power users got so attached to an old workaround that when we built a real, automated version to fix it, people got annoyed instead of happy. Turns out, when someone builds a routine around a specific glitch or manual export, taking it away feels like you're breaking their daily workflow, even if the new way saves time. We had to realize that "better" doesn't always feel better if it shows up without warning. How do you handle shipping big updates to core features without pissing off the people who use your product every day?

Early on, you want to please every single paying customer especially the ones paying top dollar. But I realized that building custom workflows just for one loud client was turning our clean software into a messy patched up tool nobody else wanted.

Saying "no" to big money is genuinely terrifying when you're trying to keep the lights on but holding your ground is the only way to build something scalable.

Have you ever turned down custom work because it pulled you away from your core vision?