The operational detail that changed how I think about software

Before building software, I spent years in service operations. One thing I keep returning to is where work actually happens.

Important work rarely happens at a desk. It happens in a kitchen during a busy service, a storeroom with weak signal, a hotel room between turnovers, or a handover at the end of a shift.

Yet many tools are designed around the final dashboard, rather than the moment someone has to capture what is happening.

I have become convinced that if a workflow is awkward where the work occurs, the data it creates will eventually be incomplete, delayed, or unreliable.

That changed the question I ask before adding anything:

Not “Will this look useful in a report?”

But “Can someone use this while the work is actually happening?”

For founders who have spent time close to their users’ daily environment: what detail about the real workflow changed how you thought about building?