About maru
I had too many questions to leave them unanswered.
Hi, I'm maru.
Whenever I use a website or an app, I often find myself wondering about the little things.
- Why does this feature work this way?
- Why does something simple take so many steps?
- Couldn't there be an easier way to do this?
Eventually, I started building things myself.
At first, I simply enjoyed turning an idea into something that worked. But once I started putting products out into the world, I found myself asking different questions.
- How do people discover a product?
- What do they do when they first open it?
- Why do some people come back while others leave?
These days, finding answers to those questions is one of the most interesting parts of building. So instead of drawing lines between planning, design and development, I do whatever it takes to make a product work, from start to finish.
IN PRACTICE
Here's what that looks like.
ufree · Design
ufree started with a familiar group-chat routine: asking everyone when they're free, waiting for replies, then comparing schedules all over again. I removed sign-up so anyone with the link can join, and focused on making time selection easy with a thumb on a phone.
ufree · After launch
After launch, I tracked each step: rooms created, links shared, people joining, and plans confirmed. The number of rooms caught my eye first, but it turned out to include rooms I'd created myself for testing.
Once I filtered those out and recounted the rooms where sharing and participation actually happened, it was clear that creating a room and settling on a plan are not the same thing. So now I'm focused on making it easier for invited people to respond, and on helping groups move naturally toward a confirmed time.
Mwomeok · ufree
I ship and run what I build. Mwomeok goes out to the web, a Toss mini app and Android from a single web codebase, and anything that shouldn't reach the client, like the place-search key, sits behind a server. ufree is available in 12 languages.
CherryPick
CherryPick started as a news summarizer. While reviewing copyright and how news content can be used, I redesigned it around explaining the background and context of key stories, and it now publishes issue cards every day. Along the way, the value I want it to provide became clearer.
Threads
I introduce what I make on Threads myself to find early users, and I try out products other developers have built and leave feedback.
Is it clear what the product does from the first screen? Are more features actually becoming a barrier to entry? What I notice in other products becomes a lens for looking at my own. I weigh that feedback together with real usage data to decide what to fix next.
There's still a lot I don't know, and plenty I want to get better at. But one thing hasn't changed.
I'd rather build something people can actually use than leave an idea sitting in my head.
Marumade is a small product studio I run on my own. It's where I bring that work together, along with what I learn along the way.
- hello@marumade.com
- Threads
- @bymarumade ↗
- GitHub
- github.com/maru119 ↗