By: Muhammad Aryo Baskoro | NIM 2702382221

Lecturer : Irene Teresa Rebecca Hutabarat, S.MB., M.M.

When I first started the Entrepreneurship: Market Validation course, I honestly thought the assignment would be simple. I assumed it was just about building an app and presenting it. As a Computer Science student, developing Monexa using Flutter and Firebase felt like my comfort zone. Coding was familiar territory, and I was confident in my technical ability. At that time, I believed that as long as the system worked well, everything else would fall into place.

That confidence was quickly challenged.

I remember feeling proud after completing the income and expense tracking feature. The logic worked, the numbers were accurate, and everything functioned smoothly. To me, it felt like a solid product. But once we started our first market validation, reality hit. Users liked the idea, but many were confused about how to actually use the app. What I thought was intuitive turned out to be overwhelming for others.

That moment became a turning point for me. During the second round of validation, the feedback became even more direct. Some users felt that recording daily expenses took too much effort, and the app felt slower than it should for something meant to simplify life. Hearing that was tough, especially because I had put a lot of effort into the technical side. But it forced me to realize something important: a good product is not defined by how complex or clever the code is, but by how easily it solves real problems.

Through building Monexa with my team, I learned the importance of empathy in product development. Listening to friends talk about their struggles with splitting electricity bills or managing shared expenses made me see problems from a human perspective, not just a technical one. Translating those everyday frustrations into a digital solution became the real challenge—and the real lesson.

By the end of the semester, I no longer saw myself as just someone who writes code. I began to see myself as someone who can identify real-world problems, understand user behavior, and design technology that actually helps people. Monexa may have started as a class project, but the mindset I developed—of listening first, building second—is something I know will stay with me far beyond this course.