Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about something that feels much harder than building features itself:
Giving your app a strong identity.
Not just what it does, what tech it uses, or how many features it has. But the thing people instantly associate it with.
Some products are remembered immediately because their identity is very clear.
Docker:
“Run apps anywhere.”
Sentry:
“Error monitoring.”
Wireshark:
“Network protocol analyzer.”
You hear the name and instantly understand the problem they solve.
And I think this is what makes products memorable.
Today I realized something important about my own project, DebugProbe.AspNetCore.
I don’t think the identity should be:
- request inspector
- HTTP logger
- debugging dashboard
Those already exist everywhere.
But during discussions and thinking more deeply about the project, one sentence stayed in my head:
“Oh, DebugProbe is the tool for this.”
And I think “this” is:
“The fastest way to compare API behavior across environments.”
That comparison workflow feels like the real direction for the project.
So now I think I need to invest much more into making that functionality stronger instead of trying to build too many unrelated features.
Still early, but honestly this feels like the first time the project started getting a clearer identity in my head.
