How I ship fast while working full-time: Answer HQ 2.0 redesign story

Shipping like a 5-10 person team while working full-time

When I launched Answer HQ five months ago after being laid off from Pinecone, I had one simple goal: help businesses reduce repetitive customer questions while boosting sales. What I didn't expect was how much the product would evolve based on customer feedback, and how modern AI tools would enable me to ship features at the speed of a full team, this is despite being a solo founder with a full-time job. And during this time, I hit $750 MRR with a 100% revenue growth every 1.5 months. This is something I did not expect at all, I owe it all to my customers in believing in me.

Today, I'm excited to share the story behind our complete redesign and what I've learned along the way.

Listening to what customers actually need

From day one, I made a commitment to speak directly with every customer and prospect. These conversations revealed pain points I'd never considered:

"The chat widget is hard to notice on mobile," one e-commerce owner told me.

"I wish visitors could see their full conversation history," mentioned another.

"We need a way for customers to reach us directly when the AI can't help," a lifestyle brand founder explained.

Instead of building what I thought people wanted, I built what they actually asked for. After five months of continuously collecting feedback, patterns emerged that demanded a complete redesign.

I mean, really listening

In 2025, I started something that's been game-changing: monthly Zoom calls with every single customer. These calls give me honest feedback - both the good and the not-so-good.

This approach helps me ensure everyone's happy with Answer HQ, and if they're not, I can quickly address their concerns. It's my simple but effective strategy for fighting churn.

So far, I'm thrilled to report that our net revenue retention (NRR) is holding steady at 100% (fingers crossed 🤞🏻). We've even had one major customer upgrade their subscription!

These one-on-one conversations aren't just metrics-focused - they're the heart of how I build relationships and create a product people actually want to keep using."

Driving a customer-driven redesign

Today's redesign addresses the most requested improvements:

1. Better Visibility and Experience

• New call-to-action when the widget is minimized so visitors know help is available

• Full-screen experience on mobile devices (fixing those pesky small-screen bugs)

• Complete chat history now visible to visitors

2. Introducing "Boosts" I'm particularly excited about our new "Boosts" system -power-ups that enhance your Answer HQ assistant. The first one (launching next week) is the much-requested "Contact Us" form, letting visitors reach your support email directly within Answer HQ without jumping through hoops.

All Boosts are pain killers for both the customer and website visitors. We don’t build vitamins at Answer HQ.

Solo founder shipping like a 5-10 person team

Many people ask how I build and ship features so quickly while juggling a full-time job. Many have told me personally that they can’t believe Answer HQ was built by one person — they thought there had to be at least 5 people. The honest answer: modern AI tools have transformed my development process.

Three tools in particular have been game-changers:

Cursor's new Agent Feature: This AI-powered IDE helps me implement features in a fraction of the time. What might take days now takes hours. It understands my codebase, suggests improvements, and helps me debug issues.

Claude Sonnet 3.7: For everything from crafting marketing copy to thinking through product decisions, Claude has become my virtual co-founder. It helps me organize my thoughts, evaluate alternatives, and even draft documentation. Claude Sonnet 3.7 is also infinitely patient and never gets tired.

OpenAI Deep Research: This tool has transformed how I understand potential customers. It automates in-depth research on topics like identifying ideal customer profiles, discovering obscure open-source libraries, and even predicting pain points customers might face before they realize it themselves. Instead of spending days scanning forums and reading case studies, I can get comprehensive insights in minutes.

With these tools, I've achieved a shipping velocity that rivals teams of 5-10 people. Features that would have taken months now take weeks. Bug fixes that would have taken days now take minutes. I can ship new pain-killing features fast despite also working a demand full-time job. At this point, I am the bottleneck for shipping, because there’s only one mean orchestrating the coding agents. It’s insane.

What I've learned building in public

This journey has taught me some invaluable lessons:

1. Talk to every customer: Each conversation reveals insights you'd never discover otherwise.

2. Ship iteratively: Getting something useful in customers' hands beats waiting for perfection.

3. Leverage AI tools wisely: They're not replacements for thinking, but they're incredible force multipliers.

4. Be transparent about limitations: Customers appreciate honesty about what your product can and can't do.

5. Share successes and failures: I am very transparent on both Threads and Twitter (sorry I refuse to call it X) how I am building Answer HQ. This is also an easy way to stay motivated when you have no coworkers.

The redesigned Answer HQ isn't just a better product - it's a testament to what's possible when you build with your customers, not just for them.

What's next for Answer HQ

This redesign is just the beginning. With the new foundation in place, we're planning more "Boosts" that will address both support and sales pain points.

I also have something special coming for sales and support teams that will make their jobs significantly easier (more on that soon!). I’ve been cooking 👨🏻‍🍳, I promise you.

If you're curious to see these changes in action, we're offering 10% off for 3 months to new customers. Just use code LAUNCH10 at checkout: answerhq.app/upgrade

We've also just launched on MicroLaunch, and I'd love your feedback (good or bad!):

https://microlaunch.net/p/answerhq

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments.