Mid-market construction customers spent 3–9 months and $60K–$300K configuring our horizontal platform to fit their workflows. A barrier to adoption that handed deals to competitors with native construction functionality.

Same component, different padding between screens. Custom components masquerading as IDS components. No fast way to verify what's actually rendering on a live page. The gap between Figma and production was invisible until customers saw it.

Intuit customers who needed a manufacturing transaction stack had to stay on aging desktop software or leave the ecosystem entirely.

IES supported Basic and Detailed costing but forced customers to pick one mode for all projects. Construction businesses naturally budget at two levels — bid (Basic) and execution (Detailed). They needed both. They couldn't have both without data loss or manual rework.

My team was building three concurrent features that needed to be presented to leadership as one integrated experience. But AI-generated prototypes looked like concept art, not product. Every iteration forced a revert to Figma. The promise of AI prototyping collapsed under the cost of making it look real.

Multiple customers were in late-stage contract negotiations with established third-party manufacturing tools. The retention window was closing.

The build was originally scheduled for August 2026. The team needed it in February.