Building Humadroid by myself is tough. I’m good at writing code, but coming up with new ideas for the app can be really hard when I don’t have anyone to talk to about it. Sometimes I write these blog posts just to help me think things through.

The Invitation Problem

The other day, my friend wanted to try out Humadroid. It made me realize something important: when someone signs up, they might not know what to do next. That’s a big problem for an app that’s supposed to help manage people! I spent a lot of time thinking about different ways to get people into Humadroid. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Bringing in emails from work accounts

   • How it works: It uses something called the Google Admin Directory API
   • Good things:
     • It can automatically add users on a schedule
     • It proves you own your work email
   • Not so good things:
     • It only works with some email systems
     • You need to be the boss of your work emails to use it
   • Where it’s at: I got this working!

2. Inviting people one by one

   • How it works: Just a simple way to send email invites
   • The truth: It’s okay for a few people, but it’s a real pain if you have lots of employees
   • Where it’s at: It’s there if you need it

3. Using a special invite link

   • What it does: Makes a link you can share to sign people up
   • Good stuff: It’s way easier than inviting everyone separately
   • Bad stuff: People might not finish signing up
   • Where it’s at: I just finished making this

4. Letting people sign up with their work account

   • The hard part: Making sure people are really from the company they say they are
   • What worries me: How do we stop someone with a regular email from pretending to be part of your company?
   • Another problem: Asking non-techy people to change complicated settings isn’t great
   • Where it’s at: I’m still trying to figure this one out

5. Connecting to other people-management tools

   • The reality: Most of the businesses I want to help aren’t using these tools yet
   • Where it’s at: I’m not working on this right now

Thinking through all of this made me realize I need to add a way to check if someone really owns their work email. It’s helping me figure out what to build next. Sometimes I feel like I’m just stumbling around in the dark, trying to solve one problem at a time. But that’s okay. I’m learning as I go, and hopefully, Humadroid is getting a little bit better with each try.