Polishing Prototypes, Picking Backends, and Finding Clarity Through Conversations

Coffee, Prototypes, and Backend Showdowns

Today felt like a sprint inside a maze.

Most of the morning was spent wrestling with Figma. We’ve been pushing on prototype polish—smashing UI bugs, aligning font sizes, fixing weird tooltip overlaps. The kind of small things that somehow eat your entire Tuesday. But they matter. Especially with interaction testing around the corner. If someone can’t figure out where to click, that’s not on them—it’s on us.

We’re leaning hard into that “documentation handoff companion” angle. One user interview this week mentioned, “It’s like Jira vomits tickets at me, and I just have to guess what’s important.” That’s gold. That pain is exactly where we want to live.

Backend Dilemma: Firebase or Supabase?

Okay, this bit’s giving me actual decision fatigue. Spent an hour mid-day laying out Firebase vs. Supabase on a whiteboard like I was prepping for a debate club.

Here’s the gist:

• Firebase

  • ✅ Fast to build
  • ✅ Built-in auth
  • ❗️Vendor prison feels real
  • ❌ Black-boxy when it comes to data

• Supabase

  • ✅ Postgres ❤️
  • ✅ Easier to migrate down the road
  • ❌ Overhead for certain use cases
  • ❗️Still evolving, less battle-tested

Current thinking: default to Firebase for now, but architect with portability in mind.

A Surprise Spike

Checked the landing page stats this afternoon. 🤯 Spike in traffic. Came from an Indie Hackers mention and some weird Product Hunt subthread. Surprisingly thoughtful comments, too. One person said they’ve been duct-taping Notion and Loom just to explain their workflows. That’s basically our origin story.

Also had a quick chat with someone who might be angel-adjacent. Wasn’t expecting much, but I think I might’ve accidentally pitched. 😅 TBD.

Advisor Call = Brain Reboot

Had a strategy session with one of our advisors. It turned into a conversation about “what could this become if it really worked?”

Worked through some mental models:

• Is this more like HubSpot onboarding, or more like Notion-style internal enablement?
• Do we want to compete with walkthrough tools, or complement them?
• Should our pricing follow seats, usage, or embedded footprint?

Still a lot of fog, but at least it’s fog we’re aware of now.

Tiny Wins Add Up

Ended the day with small but high-leverage moves:

• Cleaned up prototype flow for project creation
• Synced with the dev on auth scaffolding
• Booked 3 usability sessions for this weekend
• Drafted questions to improve next week’s interview structure

Momentum. That’s all I’m trying to protect right now.

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What I Learned Today: A Simple Way to Decide Between Backend Tools

If you’re torn between Firebase and Supabase (or really any tool that affects infra down the line), ask yourself:

1. Speed vs. Control?
   Do you need something live in two weeks, or do you want to own your stack six months from now?

2. MVP or Foundation?
   Some tools are better for validating. Others are better for long-haul architecture.

3. What will make hiring easier?
   Would your future devs thank you for this choice? Or curse you?

Writing this made it clear for me: pick what gets you moving, but design like you’ll regret it later. That way, you probably won’t.

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Tomorrow’s about testing, refining, and not falling into the “what if it was also a platform?” trap.

Small scope. Big clarity. Let’s go.