Summer Summit: Getting Stuck on Our Own Platform

Last week at our Summer Summit Buildathon, the entire Netlify company came together to build on Netlify Agent Runners.

Like everyone else, I set out to build a site that would publish blogs to multiple websites.

I didn't get very far.

Instead, I got stuck.

And that turned out to be the most valuable part of the day.

I experienced exactly what a new builder experiences. I wasn't reading customer feedback or watching a demo. I was the customer.

I hit a step that asked me to configure a build hook and connect it to a repo.

Then I got an error:

"Build hook could not configure."

My immediate reaction was, "What is a build hook?"

That one moment changed how I think about our product. It reminded me that every confusing workflow, every unclear error message, and every assumption we make creates friction for someone trying to build.

Watching our engineers, true professionals, work through these challenges also gave me a deeper appreciation for the craft that goes into building great developer tools.

The biggest lesson, though, came from getting stuck myself.

The executive who experiences their own product the way a first-time customer does isn't wasting time. They're getting the most honest product feedback possible.

If you lead a platform company, spend time building on your own platform. You'll learn things no dashboard, customer interview, or product review can teach you.