‘’Fall in love with the problem not the solution. Understand your ideal customer and their pain points''

Jana Schellong the co-founder of beams and a Graca alumna, a SaaS tool that helps teams and individuals streamline their workflows across various work tools.

Jana shares insights into beams' product development journey, their approach to incorporating industry trends and new technologies, and valuable tips for entrepreneurs building their own digital products.

Can you tell us a little bit about your business?

I started beams together with co-founder Mihri in 2021.

As a software developer and a product manager, we are solving a problem that we and everyone around us is experiencing every day. We are using more and more SaaS tools at work, which results in constant distraction and context switching for individuals and an even bigger problem for teams and companies as ineffective and intransparent workflows are spread across those tools.

beams integrates with the daily work tools of the product & tech team (Calendar, Slack, Linear, Github etc) to get a holistic understanding of workflows and workcontext to generate insights and automate repetitive tasks.

We started building the solution as an individual productivity solution that users use everyday to improve daily workflows and are now elevating the beams experience to the team level.

What should readers know about you? Apart from being the founder of beams?

I try to keep a relatively healthy body and mind through yoga, tennis, meditation and dancing. I currently try to become better at balancing consumption and creation when it comes to culture and creativity. So next to going to movies, galleries, listening to music and reading, I want to play the piano more, join my artist friend in her atelier, sit in front of a blank paper etc.

How was your product development journey building beams?

Building products users enjoy every day is our strength. We've been building beams with a strong focus on user centricity and community-led approach. For example, we onboarded the first 200 users manually with short onboarding calls, to better understand how they work, what distracts them and how beams could help.

Nearly everyone of our early users is also part of our Slack community where they can provide feedback and shape the direction of the product with us. Our six person team currently consists of Mihri and myself, 3 developers and a designer. They are all former colleagues of ours, nearly everyone is senior, which makes our product development process really effective. We try to release a new version of our mac and web app every week.

How do you stay updated on industry trends and new technologies, and how do you incorporate this knowledge into your product development approach?

Mostly through following my trusted thought-leaders via Twitter, LinkedIn and their newsletters.

Can you share your tips for entrepreneurs who are currently building their digital products?

Fall in love with the problem not the solution. Truly understand our ICP and early users' pain points, instead of focussing too much on your solution. Your solution will change all the time, so embrace the uncertainty, be aware of potential confirmation bias and see quick product iterations as wins.

Thank you Jana for the Interview! We are happy to have you on Board as a Grace Alumna.