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Building a tech product from scratch might be similar to being trapped in a labyrinth full of possibilities for the first time, you know you might visualize the outcome, but deciding to go right or left gets more complicated than usual. Where do I begin? What is my purpose and what do I need to fulfill it? I kept on asking myself those questions over and over again when being immersed in different start-ups; queries that led me to create a broad guide of tools worthy of sharing. In this article, you will see an app variety that has proven to be more than useful to a general purpose in this journey: success and independence.

To start with, experience has shown me there is no better tool than organization, the kind that draws a line and provides a tangible path to follow; 

 stands, in my opinion, as one of the best resources since it provides a variety of templates that instead of limiting creativity, rather provides a chart to document from beginning to end big and small goals, achievements, suggestions, and priorities. It allows you to choose an accurate template to write down your process and match your goals while also adding additional sections that you could need such as Business models, Milestones and Timelines, Team structure, etc.

After getting a full picture of what you would like to get done, it will be good to visualize what your product will look like. In the end, the aesthetic of it translates into the presentation letter for your public, clients, or target. For this purpose, some tools will make it easier, such as 

. Personally, I tend to resonate with the first one due to its versatility, easy-to-use factor, and sharing with others. Hence, it does not look like a one-man job, it requires a team and of course, a strong connection to process the idea that promises to quickly lead to a better product. For me, that’s Figma’s magic, a combination of how ideas look with team connectivity.

Now that we have a product to show, it’s time for getting those gems that will help you to build the MVP. I assume that on Notion you have written about the team, their skills, and what roles would develop in the company. For that, there are some easy-to-manage but interesting platforms to connect with people ready to get the job done, such as 

 is a tool that allows you to move forward with the hiring process, covering first contact, phone screen, interview, and offer. If you are at the point where you have someone else in the team apart from you, 

 provides active communication within the team in a business messaging platform where there are no limits or walls to interact and build common ideals. I might say is the perfect complement to the purpose of community and development. Moreover, I have seen the difference between opinions, ideals, and guidelines working together for the benefit of a product, as well as a process where communication becomes the key to success. It is with 

 that I have witnessed how a team can grow not only in the number of team players but also in product engagement using various channels for common topics of interest.

Moreover, I have learned how communication actively leads to better management of projects and endeavors within a company, or in this case, a tech product. It is when 

, and so much more, collaborate to create new levels of productivity in high-performance teams. If you like shortcuts, integrations, and black/gray appearance, Linear is for you. Additionally, it covers all important matters for project traceability. Being this, the perfect time to discuss product building where I will not focus on tech stack but rather drive our attention to inevitable steps such as **landing page, onboarding, monitoring, analytics, and marketing.

 is one of the most important aspects to start your product and business while bringing a good learning point on your experience, but it is not the core of your productivity goal. That’s why, your tech team should not spend most of the time building it, but rather consider it as the baseline to delve into a bigger picture of how the tech product is going to be. Furthermore, I recommend using a landing page builder, for instance, 

, among others that not only celebrate the importance of illustration but also save time.

, is an onboarding tool that allows you to present the steps to use the product, in simple words, it would teach the users how to move forward in your creation. Yet again, the tech team will be focusing on the core of the product, and at this point, the product is running (the MVP), therefore, monitoring it is ideal to know what is happening every time along the process. We all know catching bugs is always part of building a tech product, a mobile app, web, or desktop app, so 

 is out there to send notifications about what the users are reproducing in real-time, and showing if something went wrong technically. Be sure that you have integrated 

 is good for the reactive process, I would recommend taking some proactive actions to prevent bad user experiences. For that, 

 (e2e testing) could run the more critical user flows in a specific period of time guaranteeing the app is running as you expect. Consequently, learning about users and usability at the same time could be key for growing a product, and tools like 

 provide us with the advantage of watching screen recordings of real sessions which is an input to change, add or remove something on the product.

Finally, marketing is the final big word we ought to consider in this journey; it is your megaphone to let your work be known. Although there are many aspects to cover, I would narrow our experience to certain tools to make your life easier but interestingly complex and holistic simultaneously. 

 are fascinating, it is like asynchronous communication with your prospects and/or users 24h and 365 days. This means you want to use it if you want to grow along with those who are interested in the product. Additionally, those tools help to get a strong connection between what is happening on the landing page and the product to improve conversions. Of course, do not forget Google and Facebook ads can be included in the strategy if you feel like they suit your purpose. I have tried and witnessed these tools in action, but do not take this as final advice for your marketing strategy, I would recommend contacting someone with enough experience in the industry.

All in all, after spending hours on how to better present strategies, ideas, tools, and methodologies, I realized that I could have written more than 100 lines for each step or reference to show specific cases. Still, the goal of this article is to give the community a small framework and a bunch of tested tools to start a journey on a tech product. If you are in your first steps, take consideration that every movement matters, be patient, and trust your process and intuition.

Ed. Ana María Avendaño
Canada, Toronto, ON

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