A Fresh Start
Every project has its own spark. For this one, it came from a brand-new client with a bold vision but without any technical background. They weren't engineers or product designers — they were marketers and business leaders who knew their pain points inside out.
Their ask was simple in words but massive in scope:
“We want a platform that can show us what competitors are doing, explain why their ads work, and help us create better ones.”
No wireframes. No technical roadmap. Just problems described in plain language.
Our job was to listen carefully, interpret their intent, and translate it into a working product.
And because time-to-market mattered, we set ourselves an ambitious goal: ship a functional MVP in less than 21 days.
Shipping the MVP in 21 Days
Speed was key. We identified the core features that would deliver immediate value and prove the concept:
- Ad Discovery → Scraping Facebook ads of competitors and presenting them clearly.
- Creative Analysis → Early AI tagging of hooks, formats, and angles.
- Landing Page Audit → Automated evaluations of speed, UX, and conversion elements.
- Ad Generation → Basic AI-driven ad creation from templates.
- Competitor Tracking → Ability to follow specific brands and see updates.
In just three weeks, we turned a plain-language wishlist into a working tool.
The MVP wasn't meant to be perfect — but it worked. For the client, who had never seen a technical product come to life before, this was transformative. They could now see their vision in action and validate it with real users.
The Cohort Test: Early Validation
After the MVP launched, the client ran a cohort test. They invited brands, marketers, sales executives, and other industry professionals to try the platform.
The response was overwhelmingly positive. Marketers loved the competitor insights, brands appreciated the creative breakdowns, and sales teams found the data actionable.
This early feedback was critical. It gave the client confidence that the idea wasn't just good on paper — it resonated with real users. It also gave us clarity on which features to prioritize as we scaled.
Scaling Beyond the MVP
With validation in hand, we shifted gears to build a robust, full-featured platform. The client continued to describe their needs in simple, non-technical terms:
- “We want to ask questions like ‘what’s this brand’s strategy?’ and get an answer.”
- “It would be great if the system could check our landing pages for us.”
- “Can we also listen to what people are saying about us online?”
We translated those requests into powerful features:
- Advanced Creative Analysis → Full breakdowns of ads, including hooks, angles, and performance estimates.
- AI Agent → Conversational tool for querying brand and competitor strategies.
- Social Listening → Monitoring audience sentiment in real time.
On the technical side, we also upgraded the backbone:
- Celery with Priority Queues for reliable, large-scale scraping and analysis.
- Supabase for a scalable, secure database and authentication system.
The MVP gave us the blueprint. The scaled platform made it sustainable.
The Flow in Action
Here’s what happens behind the scenes when a user tracks a brand:
- A user requests a brand to be analyzed.
- The brand is added to the database.
- Scrapers collect ads → AI tags and analyzes them → insights are stored.
- A periodic beat refreshes the database so insights stay up to date.
For the user, the complexity is invisible. They type in a brand, and a living, dynamic intelligence hub appears.
What Stayed on Their Side
While we handled the build, the client took care of legalities, compliance, and official documentation. This clean separation let both teams focus on what they did best.
Product Choices That Paid Off
Two key decisions stood out:
- Supabase → simplified auth and database scaling.
- Celery Priority Queues → ensured heavy workloads (scraping + analysis) ran smoothly.
Both choices allowed us to build fast early and scale confidently later.
The Outcome
The project delivered on multiple fronts:
- MVP in 21 days gave the client something real to test, fast.
- Cohort validation showed strong demand across marketers, brands, and sales execs.
- Scaling the platform turned it into a feature-rich, daily-use product.
- Non-technical accessibility made it usable by anyone — no engineering expertise required.
Behind the Scenes
The road wasn’t entirely smooth. Halfway through development, we lost a key team member. On a project moving this quickly, that could have derailed momentum.
Instead, we reassigned tasks quickly, brought in a strong replacement hire, and managed the transition in stride. In the end, the new addition elevated the project further — proving that adaptability is just as important as speed.
Team Flow & Communication
Our approach to communication made all the difference:
- One point of contact for the client → They always had a representative who understood their needs and could translate them to the team.
- Trello Kanban system internally → Clear delegation, transparent progress, no blockers left unchecked.
- Plain-language feedback loops → Clients described ideas like “show ads side by side” and we turned that into polished features.
For non-technical clients, this was huge. They never had to “speak tech” — we did the translation for them.
Tracking What Mattered
From day one, we included:
- Cost tracking → to keep resources efficient.
- Usage monitoring → so admins could see how features were being adopted.
This gave everyone clarity on performance and ROI.
Final Thoughts
This project was more than just building software. It was about turning a non-technical vision into a real, scalable platform — and doing it at startup speed.
By delivering an MVP in under 21 days, we gave the client a testable product. By validating it with a cohort of real users, we proved market demand before scaling. And by carefully listening to plain-language requests, we built a platform that matched the client’s intent without them ever needing to think about technical details.
If you want this adapted for GitHub README, Notion, MDX, or case-study CMS formats, I can tailor it precisely.
