Tom Schindler

I'm Tom - software engineer, product builder, and occasional writer.

I build websites and digital products. Mostly the kind people use every day - platforms, tools, interfaces. Some are well known, most aren't - but they work, and someone built them. Often that was me.

What drives me isn't the technology itself but the question behind it: what is this actually for? A feature nobody needs isn't a good feature - no matter how clean the code is. So when I build, I always think about what a product is supposed to do and for whom. Technology is the tool. The problem in front of it is the real work.

Over time I've noticed that the most interesting projects are rarely the most technically difficult ones. Things get interesting when it's unclear what should be built at all. When three people have three different ideas of the same product. When something goes live and suddenly everything behaves differently than expected. In those moments no framework helps - you have to think, ask questions, sometimes just try things.

I've built products from scratch, alone and in teams. I've taken over things that had grown without anyone really thinking it through - and turned them into something people actually enjoy working with again. I've built early versions that were deliberately unfinished so that real users could show what was actually needed. That's sometimes uncomfortable, but usually the fastest way to the right solution.

I also write. Not because I'm an expert distributing knowledge, but because writing is the best way I know to actually understand something. As long as something only exists in my head, I can convince myself I've understood it. The moment I write it down, I quickly see where the gaps are. My blog is about web development, product decisions, and the honest side of it - what worked, what didn't, and what I'd do differently next time.

If you want to work together or just say hi - write to me.