A Technical PM's journey from frustration to shipping a solo Android app
As a Technical Project Manager, I track time constantly. Client hours, project phases, billable work. It's part of the job.
But every time tracker I tried left me frustrated.
Toggl is powerful — too powerful. Every time I opened it, I had to navigate through workspaces, projects, tags, and integrations I'd never use. Clockify felt the same. Harvest was built for teams, not for someone who just wants to know where their day went.
And don't get me started on the design. Most of these apps look like they were built in 2012 and never updated.
So I did what any slightly obsessive PM would do: I built my own.
The Problem I Was Actually Solving
It wasn't that existing trackers lacked features. It was that they had too many.
Every morning I'd open an app, get overwhelmed by options, and either spend 2 minutes setting up a timer correctly or just give up and track nothing. By the end of the week, I had no idea where my billable hours went — which meant I was probably undercharging clients.
I wanted one thing: tap a button, start tracking. That's it.
Building Tempo as a Non-Developer
Here's the part that still surprises me: I built Tempo without writing a single line of code.
As a Technical PM, I understand systems, workflows, and user experience — but I'm not a developer. I used AI tools to go from idea to a fully functional Android app in 2–3 months.
The process wasn't always smooth. There were bugs, confusing UX decisions, and moments where I questioned whether I was building something anyone else would actually use.
But I kept coming back to the same question: would I use this every day? And the answer was always yes.
What Tempo Does (and Doesn't Do)
Tempo is deliberately minimal:
One tap to start tracking **— no setup, no forms, no friction
**Billable vs non-billable toggle — know exactly what to invoice
Daily & weekly reports — see where your time actually goes
Custom projects with icons and colors
Fully offline — no account required, your data stays on your device
What Tempo doesn't do: project management, team collaboration, integrations, invoicing. There are great tools for all of that. Tempo just tracks your time.
What I Learned Shipping Solo
The first version is never the real version. Early testers found bugs I never would have caught myself. They also told me what they actually needed — currency options for billable tracking, a cleaner project creation flow. I shipped two rounds of fixes before going public.
Simplicity is harder than complexity. Adding features is easy. Deciding what not to build is the real work. Every time I was tempted to add something, I asked: does this make the core experience better, or just more complicated?
People want to know the story, not just the product. The most engagement I got during testing wasn't from showing screenshots — it was from telling people why I built it. The frustration resonated. The story made the product feel real.
Who Tempo Is For
If you're a freelancer who bills clients by the hour, Tempo will help you track time accurately and know exactly what's billable at the end of the week.
If you're a remote worker or student who wants to understand how you spend your day, Tempo gives you honest, visual data without making you manage a second system.
If you've tried Toggl or Clockify and found them overwhelming, Tempo is the simpler alternative you've been looking for.
Where to Get It
Tempo is available now on Android.
I'd love to hear your feedback — especially if you're a freelancer who bills by the hour. What would make this a permanent part of your workflow?
Built solo by a Technical PM who was tired of overcomplicated time trackers.
Top comments (0)