Build One Inch at a Time › Make Great Software with Chris & Gina

What’s the smallest thing you can ship today? Novelist Anne Lamott keeps a one-inch picture frame on her writing desk. It reminds her that on any given day, she only has to write what she can see through it: one scene, one detail, one interaction. Building software works the same way. Make it smaller, point the frame at the right thing, and get that one piece right before you move on. We took this approach on a complicated digital platform we built for a major public transit system. It pushed real-time, targeted service alerts to screens on subway platforms. We started with one text box, one Publish button, and one test screen. We also get into: How zooming out to the big picture can freeze a team Why “just give the API all the fields it needs” is a trap How premature optimization tempts backend engineers and AI coding agents alike What Nest got right before it got the hardware right When thinking small can bite you Make Great Software is a show about timeless, practical principles for building better software experiences, hosted by Chris and Gina. Learn more: https://chrisandgina.co -- 0:00 Cold open: the one-inch picture frame 0:51 What’s the smallest thing you can ship today? 2:57 A big project for a transit system 5:14 Start with the text box 7:33 Don't just put all the fields 10:27 Point the frame at the right place 14:00 AI agents go to 11 15:23 Vulnerable demos 20:12 Whatever happened to the MVP? 21:02 What Nest got right first 23:26 Keep the team small 25:17 The case for (good) micromanagement 28:37 When thinking small bites you 29:41 Smartphones: the forced frame 31:49 How one text box grew up 32:43 And now for something completely different