Forge Blog
Latest news and articles about building products, extensible platforms, plugin development, and ecosystem growth strategies.
Why Deployment Still Feels Broken (And How to Fix It)
Most teams treat deployment as a ceremony rather than a default. Here is what is actually causing the friction, and what fixing it looks like in practice.
What Internal Developer Platforms Should Actually Do
Most IDPs are built around enforcing consistency. The ones that actually work measure themselves by how fast teams can ship.
From Deliverables to Interfaces
Clients don't actually want your deliverable. They want access, visibility, and control. Here's what it looks like when service firms ship interfaces instead.
Self-Serve Infrastructure Is Still a Myth
Self-serve infrastructure replaces the ops ticket with IAM confusion, undocumented dependencies, and a Slack message to the one person who knows.
In Defence of iFrames: The Most Misunderstood Extension Runtime
iFrames get dismissed as clunky legacy tech. Yet Figma, Atlassian, and Salesforce chose them deliberately. Here's why the dismissal is wrong.
Your Service Is Stuck in a PDF
Most services hit a ceiling not because of expertise or demand, but because the deliverable is a document. Here's why that matters and how to fix it.
Jamstack Was Never About Static Sites
Jamstack didn't win because of performance. It won by separating frontend from backend, content from presentation, and deployment from infrastructure.
The Objection-First Method: Validate by Trying to Get Rejected
Stop pitching your idea to prospects. Lead with every reason it won't work for them. The ones who still want it are your real signal.
Your Internal Developer Platform Is Just a New Bottleneck
Most internal developer platforms just create a new queue. Here's why the bottleneck moved inside your IDP, and what to do about it.
Your Stack Isn't the Problem. Your Workflow Is.
Most engineering teams aren't slow because of their tech stack. They're slow because of the processes, handoffs, and friction wrapped around it.
Sandbox vs Serverless vs iFrame: Choosing the Right Extension Runtime
VS Code, Shopify Functions, and Figma each chose a different extension runtime. Here's how to pick the right model before you build the wrong one.
AI Market Sizing for Founders: TAM That Isn't Fantasy
The standard TAM/SAM/SOM model is built on made-up multipliers. Here's how to use AI tools to size markets from real, verifiable data.
Demand Testing in the AI Era: The Only Signals That Matter
Most validation signals are noise. Learn the signal hierarchy that separates genuine demand from wishful thinking, plus a Go/No-Go framework.
Security Lessons from WordPress: Why Open by Default Breaks at Scale
WordPress succeeded because of extensibility. But its plugin model carries hard lessons about shared blast radius and what happens when openness outpaces containment.
Trust Is Your Real Product: Governance Patterns for Plugin Marketplaces
Governance is a product problem, not a policy problem. Learn the four layers that let plugin ecosystems scale safely and the failure modes that rot trust.
Validation Without an MVP: 9 Tests That Beat Building
Stop building MVPs. Here are 9 validation tests that prove demand before you write a line of code.
Forge 2025 Year in Review
A comprehensive look at Forge's transformative year in 2025, featuring the new client app launch, plugin marketplace (Beta), AI-powered features, enhanced security, and major developer experience improvements.
Customer Discovery 2.0: Using AI to Get Better Interviews
How to use AI tools to structure, transcribe, and analyse customer interviews for real insights. AI doesn't replace discovery — it makes you less delusional, if you let it.
The Marketplace Flywheel: How Plugin Ecosystems Compound (and Why Most Stall)
Most plugin marketplaces stall because the flywheel never spins. Learn what the real marketplace flywheel looks like, why most platforms never get it moving, and how successful teams (like Shopify) design for compounding growth from day one. Includes diagnostic checklist.
When Extensibility Creates Leverage (and When It Creates Liability)
A practical decision framework for SaaS product leaders and platform operators: when does extensibility create real leverage versus liability, and what should you open up first—and what should you keep locked down? Includes step-by-step evaluation process and readiness checklist.
Fake Doors That Don't Lie: How to Run Landing Page Tests Without Fooling Yourself
Landing page tests are easy to run but hard to interpret. Learn which signals matter and which are noise, and how to design fake door tests that reveal real demand.
Why Your Waitlist Is Lying to You (And What to Measure Instead)
Waitlists are vanity metrics. Here's what actually signals demand and intent in the AI era, and how to stress-test your waitlist to find real validation signals.
Idea Generation Is Cheap Now. Taste Is the Moat.
AI has made startup idea generation trivial. The real differentiator for founders in 2025 is taste: knowing which ideas are worth testing, which to kill, and why.
Welcome to the Forge Blog
Welcome to the Forge blog, where we share insights on building products, growing teams, and unlocking innovation in an AI age.
