Practical building

I build when the obvious solution does not exist.

These are not portfolio exercises. Each tool started with a problem I observed and became software used in real work or daily life.

Before the apps

Products with technical depth

My technical product work goes well beyond standalone apps. At esome, I have owned advertising tools, helped build a meta-DSP and worked on services that automated campaigns from API intake through delivery, controlling and reporting.

We also built a creative validator that checks images and HTML5 banners against the requirements of a selected platform and placement. For HTML5, it verifies that the banner renders correctly, responds to clicks and meets the relevant technical specifications.

I also used AI coding agents to understand existing systems, take hands-on responsibility for them and deliver necessary updates myself.

Three problems. Three working tools.

Small products can be strong evidence. The important part is not that AI helped write the code. It is that the right problem was found and a useful solution reached people.

01 · A recurring coordination problem

Slack Status Bot

Why: I wanted Slack to reflect whether someone was actually available without asking people to maintain it all day. I owned the product from idea through implementation.
What: A desktop application that sets Slack status for Zoom, Teams and Huddles, supports schedules and custom statuses, and can show what someone is listening to on Spotify or Apple Music.
In use: Used productively by several people, including me, for more than a year.

02 · A customer problem that should have had a better answer

Image Batch Generator

Why: In a customer call, I heard how expensive and time consuming individualised creatives were. An external company offered the work as a service. I thought we should be able to solve it ourselves, so I built the first version and expanded it from user requests.
What: A tool that combines a base image with CSV data to create individualised image batches, with support for parts of the same workflow in video.
In use: Used internally by colleagues and once in customer production.

03 · One request in a retrospective

Vacation Concierge

Why: A colleague wanted an easier way to find relevant absences. I turned that request into a privacy conscious chat interface instead of another workflow through HR software.
What: A Slack based assistant that answers questions about one or more colleagues and can remind someone when a frequent contact will soon be away.
In use: Currently rolling out with four active users and designed for a company of around 70 people.

Smaller tools. Real problems solved.

Not every useful product needs a roadmap. I built each of these with Codex because an everyday problem deserved a working answer.

Geofy

Turns addresses into the GPS coordinates needed for localised campaigns.

Vidly

A simple way to post and find videos, similar to the role Giphy plays for GIFs.

FreshRSS extensions

One translates English articles into German through LibreTranslate. The other stops videos when I move to the next article.

AMS to Spoolman

Reads filament information from a 3D printer's automatic material system and sends slot and usage data to Spoolman automatically.

Todoist date guard

An n8n workflow that checks my Todoist tasks and reschedules them when their due date falls on a weekend or public holiday.

Learning in practice

AI changed what I can take responsibility for.

I started the Slack Status Bot with Cursor, later worked with Claude and now use Codex. The other two featured tools, and every smaller utility above, were built entirely with Codex.

The learning curve was steep. It included prompting, but also the harder parts: structuring work, creating reusable skills and designing a reliable harness around an agent. I do not need to pretend to be a software engineer to use these tools responsibly. I bring the product judgement and learn enough technical depth to get useful work into the hands of users.