Two things I wish I knew when I started to build an internal tool framework

There are two things I wish I knew when I started to build an internal tool framework. 🙌 If you do them properly, you'll be on the right track.

People want to get started fast. Fast is the main word here. They have a problem to fix, an idea to share, or a requirement, and they want to see it done. They don't want to lose momentum. When they lose the momentum, they lose the focus and drive to fix the problem. They might lose interest and might even stop working on the problem.

That's a bad outcome for them (obviously 🙄).

It's kinda like writing. When you start to write something, you don't start with building the editor, designing the font, or cutting down a tree to make paper out of it. You just need to write; to put your ideas there; to get them out of your head.

It's the same with folks trying to build the tools that they need.

They! Just! Need! To! Ship! It! Fast! 🙌

After they've built most of what they needed on the surface, they'll start to dig in and build the nitty-gritty. They'll want to customize something deeper than the basics. That's when you'll want to give them those options. Try to put yourself in their minds and think about what you'd need if it were you building the product.

Can they change the colors, the spacing, the query, the formatting? Great! That means they can carve out the experience they want to give to their users.

This is exactly the way we approach building Avo. We let our users build 70-80-90% of their tooling with incredible ease. We give them great defaults and amazing features that they will eventually use and customize deeply.

Short version: Keep it simple to start with, but make it easy to customize later 🙌