Oh no… I’m doing it again. I’m building a product.
The story behind liftter.com
Every Product Manager should get their hands dirty. I’m building liftter.com and I’ll share everything with you.
Most Product Managers I know are great at writing specs, running stand-ups, defining OKRs and aligning stakeholders.
But when it comes to actually building a product from scratch - designing, validating, launching and talking to real users - many stay safely behind the Jira board.
I don’t blame them. It’s easy to get comfortable. But if you really want to level up as a PM, there’s only one piece of advice I can give:
Build something real. And own every part of it.
The problem that started it all
Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with dozens of personal trainers in Portugal. I asked them how they manage clients, bookings, training plans and payments.
I kept hearing the same answer: Excel.
Some make €200/day and still run their entire business through spreadsheets, WhatsApp and PDF receipts. One even said:
“I upload photos of receipts into Excel. That’s my system.”
There are tools out there. But most are in English, built for large gyms, or simply too bloated. None of them felt built for independent trainers. And definitely none felt like they were made WITH them.
That’s when we decided to build Liftter.com.
Building Liftter.com - zero fluff, all learning
We’re just three guys.
The entire project is bootstrapped. No funding. No agency. Just time, sweat, and a shared Google Drive folder.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far as a PM:
🛠 1. Ideas are cheap. But interviews are gold.
Most PMs think they’re good at discovery. But try talking to 30 strangers and getting them to open up about their workflow - you’ll quickly find out how hard it really is.
For Liftter, I’ve done 40+ interviews in cafes, on G-MEET and via cold DMs. The insight? Most PTs want simplicity. They want to open the app, see everything connected and see their calendar - that’s it.
No “personas.” No “north star metric.” Just conversations. That’s where product sense lives.
🧪 2. PMs need to prototype fast — not just write tickets
Lesson: velocity matters. Learn tools that let you build, not just describe.
📢 3. You don’t need a launch day. You need a story.
We started sharing on Twitter, Reddit and LinkedIn. That’s how we got our first early access users.
You don’t need to go viral. You just need to be consistent and tell a story that people relate to.
🧱 4. Building product is the best way to become a better PM
We all read the books. We all know the frameworks. But nothing compares to actually building something from scratch.
As a PM, doing this gave me sharper instincts, more empathy for devs, and a much stronger sense of prioritization.
Every feature feels heavier when you're the one writing copy, answering support messages, and watching Stripe dashboards in real time.
Final thought: Stop talking. Start building.
You don’t need the perfect idea.
You don’t need a cofounder.
You don’t need funding.
Just pick a problem that feels real, build a simple solution, and talk to your users every single week.
You’ll learn more in 3 months of shipping than in 3 years of reading PM books.
And if you’re curious how we’re doing it with Liftter — I’ll keep sharing the journey.
→ Check out Liftter.com (if you know a personal trainer or a studio owner, send it their way!)
Let me know what you’re working on.
And if this inspired you to finally build something — reply to this and I’ll cheer you on.
Until next time,