It starts with a simple idea, clean, focused, solving one problem well. You build it, launch it, and people love it. Then come the requests. “Can you add this feature?” “What about this integration?” You listen, you iterate, and soon, your sleek app grows legs, arms, and a dozen extra buttons.

For example, my simple app, webrew, a straightforward coffee timer. People have requested for custom ratios, saved brews, and profiles.

Of course, adding features, especially paid ones, makes sense for business. But slowly, the simplicity fades. What was once intuitive becomes a maze of options. The app bloats. Users feel overwhelmed. Then, someone sees the mess and thinks, What if we made a simpler version of this? And just like that, a new app is born, starting the cycle all over again.