Author | Lightnews

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 18

🧠 Real case from a recent consultation:

A dev team of 5:

1 team lead
1 senior
2 juniors
1 intern

The client is frustrated - deadlines keep slipping, tasks are on fire, and Jira is pure chaos 😬

So… what do you think is the real problem here?
Curious to hear your take on it.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 5

Don’t over-automate your first workflow
Manual is fine at the start.
You need to understand the flow first.

Then automate with precision.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 5

Build less, reuse more
Before writing code, check:
→ Can we use a library?
→ An API?
→ A tool we already built?

Fast doesn’t mean hacky.
It means smart.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 4

Don’t mimic some SaaS bro with 100-hour weeks.
Build for your bandwidth, your phase, your family.

Design your company to fit you.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 3

Not everyone wants to ‘scale’
Some devs just want solid, focused work.
Not management. Not politics. Not fame.

Respect different growth paths.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 3

Junior devs don’t need hand-holding. They need context.
Give them real tasks, guardrails, and space to think.
Micromanaging kills growth.
Trust + feedback = progress.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 3

No, we won’t build your idea for equity.

Unless it’s Stripe equity - we work for cash.

Your idea might be gold, but until it earns, builders shouldn’t carry the whole risk for you.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 3

It’s never just tech
Tech is easy.
Process, people, expectations are the hard part.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚩Red flag: no technical advisor in sight
If you're a non-tech founder building SaaS solo, you need a tech-savvy partner or advisor.
Otherwise, you're throwing cash into a black hole.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 2

Most MVPs fail not because of low budget - but because founders try to build everything.
Cut features -> launch faster

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 2

If you do the same thing 3 times for 3 clients - build a template or internal tool.
Saves time.
Boosts margins.
Delivers better results.

We did this with a file uploading.
After building it 3 different ways - we finally said:
“Okay. Let’s make it reusable.”

Repeat ≠ boring.
Repeat = scal

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 1

Don’t let devs pick your tech stack blindly
Ask:
→ Why this stack?
→ What’s the risk?
→ How fast can we hire for it?
If they can’t answer, they’re playing with shiny toys.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 1

Listen to user behavior more than user words.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 1

Constraints are creative fuel.

Less time = better prioritization
Less budget = smarter solutions
Less people = cleaner process

Agree?

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Sep 1

Every time I hit “deploy,” I still feel it.
Even after years.
Will it break?
Did we forget something?

But I’ve learned:
The only thing worse than shipping something broken - is never shipping at all.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 30

You don’t need everyone’s advice
Especially from people who’ve never built what you’re building.
Choose your voices carefully.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 29

People only see the product.
But behind it is:

✔️ Frantic testing

✔️ Budget panic

✔️ Feature cutting

✔️ Google Docs chaos

✔️ Doubt

That’s normal.
Don't mistake mess for failure.
It’s the process.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 29

Founders: you don’t need to build everything.

Buy when it's been solved.
Build when it’s core.
Hack when it’s just to test.

Spending $20/month on something proven > 20 dev hours reinventing the wheel.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 29

🧵 Things I wish I knew earlier

✔️ Code is the easy part

✔️ People are the hard part

✔️ Clients forget what they asked for

✔️ You can ship ugly and fix later

✔️ Nobody reads long docs

Still learning, every week.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 29

Some founders avoid asking technical questions because they feel dumb.

But the smartest founders I work with ask a lot.
They want to understand.

If your devs make you feel stupid - they’re failing you.
Not the other way around.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 28

So many founders ask for dashboards…
when they don’t even know which metric matters.

Start with a simple CSV or table.
Track one thing.
When that’s useful, then build UI around it.

Dashboards are not magic.
Clarity is.

1

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 28

Don’t hire a senior dev if:

✔️ You don’t have a clear product spec

✔️ You can’t review code

✔️ You just “need someone to figure it out”

You’ll waste time and burn money.

Get a tech advisor first.
Then hire with direction.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 27

Most early devs try to “build everything perfectly.”
Real-world devs ship within time, budget, team, legacy code.

Great devs are resourceful.
Not perfect.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 27

Your calendar.
Too many inputs = too little output.

I killed 80% of my notifications.
Emails, Slacks, even some calls.

I don't need to know everything right now.
I need to think, build and ship 🙏.

Want more focus? Start subtracting.

Alena @alenaesakova.bsky.social · Aug 26

Seen it too many times: someone chooses a fancy stack because it “scales” and ends up buried in dev hell.

Your MVP does not need Kubernetes, microservices, or a $500/month pipeline.

Complex ≠ professional.

What’s the most overkill stack you’ve seen used for a tiny project?