zlacker

[parent] [thread] 16 comments
1. adrian+(OP)[view] [source] 2025-12-15 12:28:00
The president of a company I work with is a youngish guy who has no technical skills, but is resourceful. He wanted updated analytic dashboards, but there’s no dev capacity for that right now. So he decided he was going to try his hand at building his own dashboard using Lovable, which is one of these AI app making outfits. I sent him a copy of the dev database and a few markdown files with explanations regarding certain trickier elements of the data structure and told him to give them to the AI, it will know what they mean. No updates yet, but I have every confidence he’ll figure it out.

Think about all the cycles this will save. The CEO codes his own dashboards. The OP has a point.

replies(7): >>hrimfa+6d >>Willia+sd >>vlugov+ij >>threet+lX >>htrp+y71 >>ceejay+Zd1 >>jimbok+d72
2. hrimfa+6d[view] [source] 2025-12-15 13:42:51
>>adrian+(OP)
At a certain scale the CEO's time is likely better spent dictating the dashboard they want rather than implementing it themselves. But I guess to your point, the future may allow for the dictation to be the creation.
replies(1): >>hobs+eu
3. Willia+sd[view] [source] 2025-12-15 13:44:34
>>adrian+(OP)
I'd argue it's not CEOs job to code his own dashboards...

This sounds like a vibe coding side project. And I'm sorry, but whatever he builds will most likely become tech debt that has to be rewritten at some point.

replies(1): >>nlake9+Em
4. vlugov+ij[view] [source] 2025-12-15 14:14:33
>>adrian+(OP)
Totally!

I have also seen multiple similar use cases where non-technical users build internal tools and dashboards on top of existing data for our users (I'm building UI Bakery). This approach might feel a bit risky for some developers, but it reduces the number of iterations non-technical users need with developers to achieve what they want.

◧◩
5. nlake9+Em[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 14:30:10
>>Willia+sd
Or to steel-man it, it could also end up as a prototype that forced the end user to deal with decision points, and can serve as a framework for a much more specific requirements discussion.
replies(2): >>btbuil+Yb1 >>Willia+3f3
◧◩
6. hobs+eu[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 15:09:54
>>hrimfa+6d
Agree, as engineers we should be making the car easier to operate instead of making everyone a mechanic.

Focus on the simple iteration loop of "why is it so hard to understand things about our product?" maybe you cant fix it all today but climb that hill more instead of make your CEO spend some sleepless nights on a thing that you could probably build in 1/10th the time.

If you want to be a successful startup saas sw eng then engaging with the current and common business cases and being able to predict the standard cache of problems they're going to want solved turns you from "a guy" to "the guy".

replies(1): >>SoftTa+kk1
7. threet+lX[view] [source] 2025-12-15 17:13:45
>>adrian+(OP)
We perpetually find worse and more expensive ways to reinvent Microsoft Access.
replies(1): >>ogogma+Fv1
8. htrp+y71[view] [source] 2025-12-15 17:54:00
>>adrian+(OP)
All tech problems are actually people problems.

once the Csuite builds their own dashboards, they quickly decide what they actually need versus what is a nice to have.

replies(1): >>DrScie+Sf1
◧◩◪
9. btbuil+Yb1[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 18:14:57
>>nlake9+Em
Exactly -- vibe coded PoC becomes a living spec for prod
10. ceejay+Zd1[view] [source] 2025-12-15 18:24:20
>>adrian+(OP)
> No updates yet, but I have every confidence he’ll figure it out.

"It" being "that it's harder than it looks"?

replies(1): >>adrian+zk1
◧◩
11. DrScie+Sf1[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 18:33:17
>>htrp+y71
And I wonder if they will discover that in order to interpret those numbers in a lot of cases they will need to bring in their direct reports to contextualise them.

If corporate decisions could be made purely from the data recorded then you don't need people to make those decisions. The reason you often do is that a lot of the critical information for decision making is brought in to the meeting out-of-band in people's heads.

◧◩◪
12. SoftTa+kk1[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 18:55:52
>>hobs+eu
Most engineers like being mechanics though.
◧◩
13. adrian+zk1[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 18:57:24
>>ceejay+Zd1
> "It" being "that it's harder than it looks"?

Honestly, I'm not sure what to expect. There are clearly things he can't do (e.g. to make it work in prod, it needs to be in our environment, etc. etc.) but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he makes great headway. When he first asked me about it, I started typing out all the reasons it was a bad idea - and then I paused and thought, you know, I'm not here to put barriers in his path.

◧◩
14. ogogma+Fv1[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-15 19:42:03
>>threet+lX
Interesting comment. Which ways have people been doing this?
15. jimbok+d72[view] [source] 2025-12-15 22:31:10
>>adrian+(OP)
Update us when you have an actual success story.
replies(1): >>adrian+guc
◧◩◪
16. Willia+3f3[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-16 08:18:38
>>nlake9+Em
That's a good point
◧◩
17. adrian+guc[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-19 02:17:51
>>jimbok+d72
Update: I haven’t heard from him about this since. That might count as a success story though.
[go to top]