I built for one user. Myself. - Indie Hackers
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I'm not a developer. I see the interface before I see the code. That's exactly how I ended up building a Mac app.
Here are my three lessons:
Lesson one: build the thing you actually have, not the thing you think people want. I spent a while chasing ideas that sounded impressive, built for a "user" I'd invented in my head. Nothing stuck until I stopped designing for a hypothetical person and built the one problem that was actually mine.
Lesson two: if you can't explain the problem simply, you don't understand it yet. My problem was context switching, losing the small stuff, a color, a link, a file, a snippet, a half finished thought, every time I moved between tabs and tools. Once I could say that in one sentence, the product designed itself: a small shelf that holds what you're still using, pinned at the edge of your screen until you need it again.
Lesson three, and the one that actually convinced me this was real: I started using it before it was finished. Not testing it, using it. Every time I reached for it without thinking, that told me more than any amount of planning could. The best use case I found for it was building it.
I called it Tansei, a Japanese word (丹精 / 丹誠) for sincerity and the discipline of doing small things well, again and again. It's designed in the spirit of Mac itself: nothing shouting for attention, nothing there by accident, doing its job and getting out of your way.
Launching soon: https://tansei.io.
Sign up for the waitlist and I'll let you know the moment it's live. When it launches there's a 3 day free trial so you can actually test it out, then it's a one time cost. If you try it and decide it's not for you, even after paying, I'd genuinely love to hear why. That feedback is worth more to me than any sale.
Would love to hear from anyone else building solo, especially the moment you knew your own idea was real.
Pooja
posted to
Building in Public
on July 14, 2026
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Building for yourself gives you unusually fast feedback, but it can also hide the workaround knowledge only you have. I would document the exact trigger, time saved, and steps another person would need without your context. If those stay clear, the personal tool has a path to a repeatable product.
agentisland
8 days ago
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Agree! How you'd actually validate it in practice though, without leaning on tracking?
I'm guessing something like watching a handful of new users hit the tool cold, with no explanation from me, and seeing where they stall versus where it clicks?
Or would you approach it differently?
tansei
8 days ago
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Five cold sessions is a good start, but I'd separate observation from collection. Give each tester a one-page task, watch live with consent, then ask them to export a local-only session summary they can inspect and redact before sharing. You learn where they stall without shipping telemetry or making privacy a hidden exception.
agentisland
7 days ago
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What part of your approval process takes the most time? Trying to understand if this is a universal pain.
Mahad_Builds
5 days ago
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Great question. For me, it wasn’t one big thing, it was all the little details. Polishing the app, refining the website, creating screenshots and videos, writing copy, and making sure everything felt ready. Each part takes time, but together they add up quickly.
tansei
5 days ago
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The "reached for it without thinking" signal is strong, but for a focus/productivity app I’d separate two things during the trial: first-use delight and whether it actually prevents the old behavior from returning. Track the moment someone would normally lose the thread, then whether Tansei catches it before they context-switch away. If that happens twice in a day, the habit may be forming.
JohnMadison
5 days ago
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The real value is not just the first moment of delight, but whether Tansei quietly steps in before the old habit returns. I really like the idea of watching for those “almost lost the thread” moments. Thank you for sharing this.
tansei
5 days ago
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Great advice and read thanks
Dookee651
6 days ago
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Thank you! I’m glad you found them useful. I hope the tips helped.
tansei
5 days ago
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Reaching for it unconsciously validates utility for you, but not yet whether the shelf survives other people's workflows. I'd instrument two numbers during the three-day trial: items pinned per day and the percentage retrieved or reused within 24 hours; a shelf that only accumulates becomes another inbox. What threshold would make you change the onboarding before launch?
agentisland
8 days ago
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Those two numbers, pins per day and reuse within 24 hours, are exactly the kind of signal I'd want.
The real tension for me is that Tansei is built local first, no account, no telemetry, nothing leaves the Mac by default....