I build when the obvious solution does not exist.

Practical building

These are not portfolio exercises. Each tool started with a problem I observed and became software used in real work or daily life.

Before the apps

Products with technical depth

My technical product work goes well beyond standalone apps. At esome, I have owned advertising tools, built a meta-DSP as part of a team and worked on services that automated campaigns end-to-end, from API intake through delivery, controlling and reporting.

We also built a creative validator that checks images against the specifications and placement requirements of every supported social platform. For HTML5 banners on open-web DSPs, it verifies technical requirements, correct rendering and click behaviour.

I have also used AI coding agents to understand existing systems, take hands-on responsibility for keeping them running and ship updates myself.

Three problems. Three working tools.

Small products can be strong evidence. The important part is not that AI helped write the code. It's that the right problem was found and a useful solution reached real people.

01 · A recurring coordination problem

Slack Status Bot

Why: I wanted Slack to reflect whether someone was actually available without asking people to maintain it all day. I owned the product from idea through implementation.
What: A desktop application that sets Slack status for Zoom, Teams and Huddles, supports schedules and custom statuses, and can show what someone is listening to on Spotify or Apple Music.
In use: Used in daily work by several people, including me, for more than a year.

02 · A customer problem that should have had a better answer

Image Batch Generator

Why: In a customer call, I heard how expensive and time-consuming individualised creatives were. An external company offered the work as a service. I thought we should be able to solve it ourselves, so I built the first version and expanded it based on user requests.
What: A tool that combines a base image with CSV data to create individualised image batches. Parts of the workflow are also available for video and can be used through either CSV input or an API.
In use: Used internally by colleagues and in production for a customer.

03 · One request in a retrospective

Vacation Concierge

Why: A colleague wanted an easier way to find relevant absences. I turned that request into a privacy-conscious chat interface instead of another workflow through HR software.
What: A Slack-based assistant that answers questions about one or more colleagues and automatically reminds users when a frequent contact will soon be away.
In use: Built for company-wide use in an organisation of around 70 people.

Learning in practice

AI changed what I can take responsibility for.

I started using AI-assisted development with Cursor, later worked with Claude and then moved to Codex. What began as experimentation became a reliable way for me to turn ideas into working products and utilities.

The learning curve was steep. It included prompting, but also the harder parts: structuring work, creating reusable skills and designing a reliable harness around an agent. I do not need to pretend to be a software engineer to use these tools responsibly. I bring product judgement and develop enough technical depth to get useful work into users' hands.

Smaller tools. Real problems solved.

Not every useful product needs a roadmap. I used AI to build each of these because an everyday problem deserved a working answer.

Geofy

Turns addresses into the GPS coordinates needed for localised campaigns.

Vidly

A simple way to find and post videos, similar to the role Giphy plays for GIFs.

FreshRSS extensions

One translates articles through LibreTranslate. The other stops videos when I move to the next article.

AMS to Spoolman

Reads filament information from a 3D printer's automatic material system and sends slot and usage data to Spoolman automatically.

Todoist date guard

An n8n workflow that checks my Todoist tasks and reschedules them when their due date falls on a weekend or public holiday.

Building is only part of the work.

These tools show how I turn problems into working products. My broader work also spans product management, team leadership and facilitation.

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