[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":92},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-en-US-behind-the-product":3,"adjacent-posts-en-US-behind-the-product":43,"related-posts-en-US-behind-the-product":59},{"id":4,"slug":4,"publishDate":5,"updateDate":-1,"title":6,"excerpt":7,"image":8,"category":9,"tags":10,"author":-1,"draft":15,"metadata":16,"content":17,"featured":15,"lang":18,"renderedContent":19,"tocItems":20},"behind-the-product",["Date","2026-02-27T00:00:00.000Z"],"From lines of code to 3.5 million orders.","A recap of my talk at Behind the Product #2 in Łódź. I share the story of KanapkaMan – from idea to 3.5 million orders – and what intentional action really means.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Fintro.webp","wydarzenia",[11,12,13,14],"startup","kanapkaman","prelekcja","product-management",false,{},"At tech conferences you usually hear ready-made recipes. Charts go up, strategies work, everything goes according to plan. But if you're building a product yourself, you know that behind every button sits someone's decision – sometimes made under pressure or without the full picture.\n\nThat's exactly why I was at **Behind the Product #2** in Łódź.\n\n## A problem everyone knows but few have solved well\n\nI told the story of **KanapkaMan**, which starts with something simple. In Poland many catering companies deliver lunches and breakfasts to office buildings. The sandwich guy shows up at an unknown time with an unknown menu. Nobody knows when he'll arrive – or whether he'll come at all. Employees wait, some leave, some miss him entirely.\n\nThe problem was obvious. The solution also seemed obvious: an app with a menu, orders and a notification when the delivery driver arrives. From a code perspective it's straightforward. I've written harder systems.\n\nBut the code turned out to be the easier part of this project.\n\n![KanapkaMan – app for catering companies](\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Fkanapkaman.webp)\n\n## What programming courses don't teach you\n\nAs developers we entered this project thinking that understanding the problem was half the battle. It turned out we had only just begun to grasp how much we didn't know.\n\nWe had to learn to look at the same product through the eyes of three different groups. And that didn't just mean having conversations.\n\n- With catering companies we ran several meetings walking through their processes step by step: how they plan routes, how they manage orders, where they lose time and money. We documented every meeting and looked for recurring patterns.\n\n- With the delivery driver we spent an entire day in the field. From loading the van in the morning, through every stop at office buildings, to settling up in the evening. We saw where he lost time and how he actually worked. None of that could be read from any brief.\n\n- For office workers we set up a survey system. The results diverged from what people said out loud: asked directly, they pointed to concrete problems.\n\n![User needs analysis – process discovery](\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Fproduct_disco.webp)\n\nToday **KanapkaMan** has over **250,000 users** and **3.5 million processed orders**. If I had to identify the one moment that made the difference, it wouldn't be any feature. It would be leaving the office and spending a whole day riding along with the sandwich guy.\n\n## How the presentation came together\n\nThe first version of the slides was correct, chronological, complete – and utterly bland. The second was better, but something still wasn't right.\n\nA meeting with **Tomasz Szer** at **Robimy Startupy** helped. Tomek asked one question: *what do you actually want people to take away from this talk?* Not what story I'd tell, but what should stick in their heads after they leave the room. That reframed the entire structure.\n\n![Talk at Behind the Product #2 in Łódź](\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Fo_mnie.webp)\n\n## Intentional action – what we're really doing and why\n\nThe core of my presentation was one thing: intentional action.\n\nWhen I look back at decisions that turned out to be wrong, most of them happened because we were doing something because we could, because we were pumped with energy, because a new technology seemed exciting. Not because we had a clear reason. The decisions that turned out to be right came from a specific problem we could see, or from conversations with users. They had intent.\n\nIt's much easier to act fast than to act with purpose. But only the latter compounds over time.\n\n## Where would I start today?\n\nIf I were starting from scratch today, I'd go earlier to environments where you can test ideas against reality. Events like **Robimy Startupy** aren't networking for its own sake. They're places where someone tells you directly what doesn't hold together in your idea.\n\nI'd also take my surroundings more seriously. Mastermind groups let you see your own projects from the outside, regularly. Thanks to the **Ponadprzeciętni** community for creating that kind of environment in Łódź.\n\n## What the other speakers talked about\n\nI don't want this post to be only about me.\n\n**Maciej Krasowski** shared his journey in fintech – concrete and unvarnished. **Olka Fiszbak-Biernat** talked about product distribution and where AI actually helps versus where it's just noise. Both talks were good for exactly the same reason: they didn't try to prove how great we are, they showed what it actually looks like.\n\n![Speakers at Beyond the Product #2 – Maciej Krasowski on fintech](\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Ffintech.webp)\n\nIn the product world that's precisely what's missing: not more case studies written for conference programmes, but honesty about what those decisions looked like before we knew the outcome.\n\n## Thank-yous\n\nThanks to the organisers – Paweł Lewiński, Michał Moroz and Karolina Boguszewska – for the invitation. You created an event worth attending, and I hope there will be more.\n\nThanks to Klaudia Pietrzak for the excellent photo coverage, and to Paweł Konieczko for analysing my talk through the eyes of a public speaking coach.\n\nEvent partners: Uniwersytet Medyczny w Łodzi, Makimo, PonadPrzeciętni, Zwinna Łódź, ProductMeetups.com, Agile Polska and Da Grasso.\n\nIf you're building a product and want to talk about making decisions with intention, reach out.","en-US","\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">At tech conferences you usually hear ready-made recipes. Charts go up, strategies work, everything goes according to plan. But if you’re building a product yourself, you know that behind every button sits someone’s decision – sometimes made under pressure or without the full picture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">That’s exactly why I was at \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">Behind the Product #2\u003C\u002Fstrong> in Łódź.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2 class=\"text-h4 font-weight-black  text-primary mt-16 mb-6 border-s-lg border-primary ps-4\">A problem everyone knows but few have solved well\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">I told the story of \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">KanapkaMan\u003C\u002Fstrong>, which starts with something simple. In Poland many catering companies deliver lunches and breakfasts to office buildings. The sandwich guy shows up at an unknown time with an unknown menu. Nobody knows when he’ll arrive – or whether he’ll come at all. Employees wait, some leave, some miss him entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">The problem was obvious. The solution also seemed obvious: an app with a menu, orders and a notification when the delivery driver arrives. From a code perspective it’s straightforward. I’ve written harder systems.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">But the code turned out to be the easier part of this project.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Fkanapkaman.webp\" alt=\"KanapkaMan – app for catering companies\" class=\"border border-primary border-opacity-50 rounded-xl my-12 w-100\" \u002F>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2 class=\"text-h4 font-weight-black  text-primary mt-16 mb-6 border-s-lg border-primary ps-4\">What programming courses don’t teach you\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">As developers we entered this project thinking that understanding the problem was half the battle. It turned out we had only just begun to grasp how much we didn’t know.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">We had to learn to look at the same product through the eyes of three different groups. And that didn’t just mean having conversations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cul class=\"pa-0 mb-6\">\n\u003Cli class=\"d-flex align-start mb-2\">\u003Cspan class=\"text-primary font-weight-bold me-2\">▹\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">With catering companies we ran several meetings walking through their processes step by step: how they plan routes, how they manage orders, where they lose time and money. We documented every meeting and looked for recurring patterns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli class=\"d-flex align-start mb-2\">\u003Cspan class=\"text-primary font-weight-bold me-2\">▹\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">With the delivery driver we spent an entire day in the field. From loading the van in the morning, through every stop at office buildings, to settling up in the evening. We saw where he lost time and how he actually worked. None of that could be read from any brief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli class=\"d-flex align-start mb-2\">\u003Cspan class=\"text-primary font-weight-bold me-2\">▹\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">For office workers we set up a survey system. The results diverged from what people said out loud: asked directly, they pointed to concrete problems.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Fproduct_disco.webp\" alt=\"User needs analysis – process discovery\" class=\"border border-primary border-opacity-50 rounded-xl my-12 w-100\" \u002F>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">Today \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">KanapkaMan\u003C\u002Fstrong> has over \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">250,000 users\u003C\u002Fstrong> and \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">3.5 million processed orders\u003C\u002Fstrong>. If I had to identify the one moment that made the difference, it wouldn’t be any feature. It would be leaving the office and spending a whole day riding along with the sandwich guy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2 class=\"text-h4 font-weight-black  text-primary mt-16 mb-6 border-s-lg border-primary ps-4\">How the presentation came together\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">The first version of the slides was correct, chronological, complete – and utterly bland. The second was better, but something still wasn’t right.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">A meeting with \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">Tomasz Szer\u003C\u002Fstrong> at \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">Robimy Startupy\u003C\u002Fstrong> helped. Tomek asked one question: \u003Cem class=\"text-secondary font-italic\">what do you actually want people to take away from this talk?\u003C\u002Fem> Not what story I’d tell, but what should stick in their heads after they leave the room. That reframed the entire structure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Fo_mnie.webp\" alt=\"Talk at Behind the Product #2 in Łódź\" class=\"border border-primary border-opacity-50 rounded-xl my-12 w-100\" \u002F>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2 class=\"text-h4 font-weight-black  text-primary mt-16 mb-6 border-s-lg border-primary ps-4\">Intentional action – what we’re really doing and why\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">The core of my presentation was one thing: intentional action.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">When I look back at decisions that turned out to be wrong, most of them happened because we were doing something because we could, because we were pumped with energy, because a new technology seemed exciting. Not because we had a clear reason. The decisions that turned out to be right came from a specific problem we could see, or from conversations with users. They had intent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">It’s much easier to act fast than to act with purpose. But only the latter compounds over time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2 class=\"text-h4 font-weight-black  text-primary mt-16 mb-6 border-s-lg border-primary ps-4\">Where would I start today?\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">If I were starting from scratch today, I’d go earlier to environments where you can test ideas against reality. Events like \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">Robimy Startupy\u003C\u002Fstrong> aren’t networking for its own sake. They’re places where someone tells you directly what doesn’t hold together in your idea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">I’d also take my surroundings more seriously. Mastermind groups let you see your own projects from the outside, regularly. Thanks to the \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">Ponadprzeciętni\u003C\u002Fstrong> community for creating that kind of environment in Łódź.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2 class=\"text-h4 font-weight-black  text-primary mt-16 mb-6 border-s-lg border-primary ps-4\">What the other speakers talked about\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">I don’t want this post to be only about me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">\u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">Maciej Krasowski\u003C\u002Fstrong> shared his journey in fintech – concrete and unvarnished. \u003Cstrong class=\"text-primary font-weight-black\">Olka Fiszbak-Biernat\u003C\u002Fstrong> talked about product distribution and where AI actually helps versus where it’s just noise. Both talks were good for exactly the same reason: they didn’t try to prove how great we are, they showed what it actually looks like.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbehind-the-product\u002Ffintech.webp\" alt=\"Speakers at Beyond the Product #2 – Maciej Krasowski on fintech\" class=\"border border-primary border-opacity-50 rounded-xl my-12 w-100\" \u002F>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">In the product world that’s precisely what’s missing: not more case studies written for conference programmes, but honesty about what those decisions looked like before we knew the outcome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2 class=\"text-h4 font-weight-black  text-primary mt-16 mb-6 border-s-lg border-primary ps-4\">Thank-yous\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">Thanks to the organisers – Paweł Lewiński, Michał Moroz and Karolina Boguszewska – for the invitation. You created an event worth attending, and I hope there will be more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">Thanks to Klaudia Pietrzak for the excellent photo coverage, and to Paweł Konieczko for analysing my talk through the eyes of a public speaking coach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">Event partners: Uniwersytet Medyczny w Łodzi, Makimo, PonadPrzeciętni, Zwinna Łódź, ProductMeetups.com, Agile Polska and Da Grasso.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp class=\"text-body-1 mb-6\">If you’re building a product and want to talk about making decisions with intention, reach out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n",[21,25,28,31,34,37,40],{"id":22,"text":23,"level":24},"a-problem-everyone-knows-but-few-have-solved-well","A problem everyone knows but few have solved well",2,{"id":26,"text":27,"level":24},"what-programming-courses-dont-teach-you","What programming courses don't teach you",{"id":29,"text":30,"level":24},"how-the-presentation-came-together","How the presentation came together",{"id":32,"text":33,"level":24},"intentional-action-what-were-really-doing-and-why","Intentional action – what we're really doing and why",{"id":35,"text":36,"level":24},"where-would-i-start-today","Where would I start today?",{"id":38,"text":39,"level":24},"what-the-other-speakers-talked-about","What the other speakers talked about",{"id":41,"text":42,"level":24},"thank-yous","Thank-yous",{"prev":44,"next":45},null,{"id":46,"slug":46,"publishDate":47,"updateDate":-1,"title":48,"excerpt":49,"image":50,"category":51,"tags":52,"author":-1,"draft":15,"metadata":56,"content":57,"featured":58,"lang":18},"freszkids-pl",["Date","2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"],"Freszkids.pl – ordering meals for schools","Platform streamlining meal ordering for schools from catering companies. For schools without their own kitchen.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Ffreszkids.webp","projekty",[53,54,55],"platform","catering","school",{},"Freszkids.pl is a platform that streamlines ordering meals for schools from catering companies. It works where schools don't have their own kitchen and use external catering. The project has two main sections: for parents and for catering companies.\n\nThe parents section lets you order meals for children at school. A parent selects their child's school, browses the menu for a specific day or week, marks meals, and places an order. You can set dietary preferences, allergens, and special diets. The system reminds about orders and allows online payments.\n\nThe catering companies section enables managing offers, menus, orders, and deliveries. A company adds menus for specific days, sets prices, defines order and delivery deadlines. It sees all orders from a given school, can export lists for meal preparation, and track payments.\n\nThe process is simple: parent selects meals, pays, company delivers. The school doesn't need to coordinate orders or collect cash. Everything works through the platform. Parents have control over what their children eat, and catering companies have a clear order management system.\n\nThe site is responsive and fast. Most parents order meals on phones, so the mobile version was a priority. Page loading is optimized – images are compressed, code is minified. \n\nSEO matters. Pages have proper meta tags, structured data, sitemap. This helps the platform appear in search results when someone looks for school catering or ordering meals for children.\n\nWe plan to expand features: SMS notifications, integration with school systems, nutritional reports for parents, meal rating options. For now, we're focusing on making sure the basic process of ordering and delivering meals works smoothly.\n\n## Links\n\n- [Freszkids.pl](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.freszkids.pl\u002F)",true,[60,71,81],{"id":61,"slug":61,"publishDate":62,"updateDate":-1,"title":63,"excerpt":64,"image":65,"category":66,"tags":67,"author":-1,"draft":15,"metadata":69,"content":70,"featured":15,"lang":18},"mam-pomysl-na-startup",["Date","2020-11-16T00:00:00.000Z"],"Taking part in the \"Mam pomysł na startup\" competition","Kanapkaman team in the \"Mam pomysł na startup\" competition. Honourable mention, mentoring and exchange with other teams.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002F16-03-2022-mampomyslnastartup.webp","kariera",[11,68,12],"konkurs",{},"With the Kanapkaman team I took part in the \"Mam pomysł na startup\" competition. We got an honourable mention; the main value for me was the meetings with our mentor and other participants.\n\nFrom the start we had an assigned mentor. His support helped us review the idea, see strengths and risks and get a push for next steps. I appreciated that he was open to questions and adapted the pace to us.\n\nExchange with other teams, mentors from different fields and organisers was valuable. Every conversation added something to how we thought about the project. Collaboration and openness to other perspectives taught me a lot.\n\nThe final was on 16 October 2020. We didn’t win first place, but the mention meant a lot to us. I took most from the relationships and advice from mentors and participants – that still pays off.\n\nI recommend this kind of competition to anyone developing a project and wanting to learn. Thanks to the mentors, organisers and teams for that time.\n\n## Links\n\n- [\"Mam pomysł na startup\" – official site](https:\u002F\u002Fmamstartup.pl\u002F)\n- [Kanapkaman on Facebook](https:\u002F\u002Ffacebook.com\u002Fkanapkaman)",{"id":72,"slug":72,"publishDate":73,"updateDate":-1,"title":74,"excerpt":75,"image":76,"category":51,"tags":77,"author":-1,"draft":15,"metadata":79,"content":80,"featured":58,"lang":18},"kanapkaman-pl",["Date","2023-06-16T00:00:00.000Z"],"KanapkaMan.pl Project","App for ordering breakfast and lunch at work. I co-built it with the team; today over 150k users use it.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fkanapkaman.pl_.webp",[54,78,11],"aplikacja-mobilna",{},"Hi. A few words about KanapkaMan.pl – a project I was part of.\n\nThe app is for ordering lunch at work: notification when the driver arrives, reserving dishes, browsing the offer (ingredients, allergens). Works on Android and iOS. [Visit KanapkaMan.pl](https:\u002F\u002Fkanapkaman.pl\u002F)\n\n## How the project evolved\n\nFrom the first version we built with the team, the app grew into a full platform. Today: orders, online payments, invoices, vouchers. Detailed dish descriptions (meat\u002Fvegetarian, allergens, macros). \"Astronauts\" program – users can suggest changes. Kanapsy – loyalty points redeemable for meals. Multilingual support (including for users from Ukraine).\n\nFor catering companies: team management, route optimization, stats and reports.\n\nFor me, working on KanapkaMan was a mix of technology, collaboration and paying attention to user needs. Thanks to the team and everyone who uses it.\n\nTry the app – if you order lunch at the office, it might be useful.\n\n## Links\n\n- [KanapkaMan.pl – homepage](https:\u002F\u002Fkanapkaman.pl\u002F)",{"id":82,"slug":82,"publishDate":83,"updateDate":-1,"title":84,"excerpt":85,"image":76,"category":66,"tags":86,"author":-1,"draft":15,"metadata":90,"content":91,"featured":15,"lang":18},"mobile-trends-awards-2022",["Date","2022-10-15T00:00:00.000Z"],"Mobile Trends Awards 2022 nomination","In October 2022 KanapkaMan was nominated for Mobile Trends Awards in the MOBILE FOODTECH category. Short account and thanks.",[87,88,12,89],"mobile-trends-awards","nagroda","foodtech",{},"In October 2022 I got the news that KanapkaMan was nominated for Mobile Trends Awards in the MOBILE FOODTECH category. For me and the team it was an important confirmation that we were on the right track.\n\nMobile Trends Awards has been one of the main awards in the mobile industry for years. The jury evaluates execution quality, fit for users, innovation and recognition. Knowing KanapkaMan was among the nominees motivated us to keep going.\n\nThe MOBILE FOODTECH category combined what I care about: mobile tech and changing how companies order and receive catering. Over the months working on the app I focused on making the interface intuitive, processes simple and the user experience consistent. Experts noticing that mattered to me.\n\nThe nomination was down to the whole team: designers (interface), developers (backend, integrations), testers (reliability). Thanks to them for their commitment.\n\nWe didn’t win the main award, but the nomination alone was a success and a sign we were on the right path. Thanks to the Jury, the KanapkaMan team and users for feedback that helps us improve the app.\n\n## Links\n\n- [Mobile Trends Awards – competition site](https:\u002F\u002Fmobiletrendsawards.pl\u002F)",1790687720790]