Geospatial Makers Start Building!

Geospatial Product Swiss Army Knife 1. The "Build It and They Won't Come" Trap

We have all seen it: a talented geospatial professional spends months—perhaps years—perfecting a technically sophisticated web map or a niche data service, only to release it to a deafening silence. In our industry, the "build it and they will come" philosophy is a fast track to zero traction.

Precision is the enemy of progress when it is applied to the wrong problem.

Daniel and Stella Blake Kelly explored a remedy for this pattern. Stella—a New Zealand-born, Sydney-based strategist and founder of the consultancy Cartisan—didn’t start with a master plan. She "fell into" the industry after being inspired by a lecturer with bright blue hair and a passion for GIS that rivaled a Lego builder’s creativity. Today, she helps organizations move from "making things" to "building products that matter" using a framework she calls the Product Swiss Army Knife.

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2. The 7-Step Framework: More Than Just a Map

Many geospatial experts suffer from a technology-first bias, prioritizing data accuracy over strategic utility. To counter this, Stella advocates for a disciplined, seven-tool toolkit designed to bridge the gap between GIS and Product Design:

1. Vision: Establish a clear statement of what you are building and why it needs to exist.
2. User Needs: Move beyond assumptions to identify real users and their specific friction points.
3. Market & Context: Analyze the existing ecosystem (competitors, data, and workflows) to find your gap.
4. Features: Ruthlessly prioritize "must-haves" to define a lean Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
5. Prototypes & User Flows: Map out the user’s journey through the service before writing a line of code.
6. Proof of Concept: Create a tangible, working version to prove the technical and market logic.
7. Launch & Learn: Release early to gather real-world data and iterate based on evidence.

This structure forces builders to treat the "spatial" element as a solution rather than the entire product. To illustrate User Needs (Tool #2), Stella suggests using formal User Stories to step out of the technical mindset:

"As a solar panel marketer, I want to find potential customers with enough roof surface area so that I can reach out to them and provide an accurate quote."

By grounding the project in a specific human problem, the developer stops building for themselves and starts building for the market. As Stella notes:

"The thing about the product Swiss Army knife... is that it can be applied to almost any situation where there is an end consumer, where somebody is going to use the thing, the service that you make."

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3. The "200 Tools" Strategy: Programmatic Market Validation

Daniel shared an unconventional approach to product discovery that serves as a masterclass in Market Context (Tool #3). Leveraging AI, he has built nearly 200 simple geospatial tools—such as a "Roof Area Calculator"—not as final products, but as a "sandbox" for discovery.

This is Programmatic Market Validation. Instead of starting with a complex SaaS model, Daniel uses these micro-tools to find "winners" via organic search traffic. By observing where the internet already has unsolved spatial queries, he lets the market dictate which products deserve a full-scale build. In this new landscape, the barrier to entry has shifted: the competitive advantage is no longer "coding ability"—it is strategic experimentation.

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4. Not All Traffic is Equal: The High-Value Keyword Insight

One of the most surprising takeaways from this experimentation is the direct link between specific geospatial problems and commercial value. A general GIS data tool might get thousands of views, but a "Roof Area Calculator" generates significantly higher programmatic advertising revenue.

The reason? Market Context. The keyword "roofing" implies high-value intent; a user measuring their roof is likely in the market for a new one, making them incredibly valuable to advertisers. Understanding the commercial landscape surrounding a user's problem is the difference between a struggling hobby project and a viable MicroSaaS.

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5. The Precision Paradox: Why GIS Experts Struggle with UX

There is a fundamental tension between the geospatial technical mindset and the product design mindset. GIS professionals are trained to be exact, precise, and correct. Designers, however, are taught to be wrong, gather feedback, and iterate.

Daniel illustrated this with a "Hot Jar" anecdote. He once built a site where users were failing to move through the revenue funnel. Heat maps revealed the issue wasn't the data—it was the layout. Users weren't scrolling down far enough to see the critical action button. The data was perfect, but the UX was broken.

Stella emphasizes that building a product requires the humility to accept that "the best designers of products are the users themselves." Success often comes from moving a button or simplifying a flow, not from adding another decimal point of precision to the underlying geometry.

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6. Launching "Soft" to De-Risk the Rollout

The "perfectionism trap" is the primary reason geospatial products fail to launch. Builders fear that "releasing slop" will damage their brand. However, Stella suggests the Soft Launch (Tool #7) as a vital de-risking mechanism.

A soft launch allows you to:

• Prevent Stagnation: Avoid the "quiet abandonment" of projects that never see the light of day.
• Validate Demand: Ensure people actually want the tool before committing to months of development.
• Build Brand and Trust: In a world where anyone can spin up a tool with AI, trust is the ultimate differentiator.

Launching early ensures continuous improvement and prevents the high-stakes pressure of a single "grand opening" that may miss the mark entirely.

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7. Conclusion: The Final Ponderance

Building successful geospatial products is about empathy and process, not just pixels and polygons. Whether you are building a global API or an internal tool for a government agency, the principles of the Swiss Army Knife remain the same.

At the recent Phosphag workshop in Oakland, the range of products—from print maps to digital twins—all shared a common hurdle: the energy to push through the "perfection barrier."

As you look at your current projects, ask yourself: Am I building this because the data exists, or because a human has a problem I can solve?

Success in the modern landscape requires a diversity of skills—brand, marketing, and distribution. If you aren't embarrassed by your first version, you’ve already lost the market. Stop building in the dark. Get out there and build the thing.