DEV Community: Mahad Tahir

Why we built nudges before we built the dashboard (and why you should too)

Mahad Tahir — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:38:18 +0000

Most SaaS founders build the dashboard first. It looks impressive in demos, investors love screenshots, and it feels like real progress.
We did the opposite. Here's why.
The real reason approvals fail
When I started building TeamAutomation, I interviewed a dozen people about their approval process. Every single one said the same thing — approvals don't fail because people reject them. They fail because nobody follows up.
The requester sends the request. The approver gets busy. Nobody wants to be the annoying person who keeps pinging. Days pass. Project blocked.
A dashboard showing "pending approvals" doesn't fix this. The approver still has to remember to open it.
Nudges are the product
We ship automatic reminders at 24 hours, 3 days, and 7 days — directly in Slack where the approver already lives. No new app to open. No new habit to build.
The accountability shifts from the requester to the system. That's the whole unlock.
What we learned
Build the thing that changes behavior first. The dashboard is just reporting. Nudges are intervention.
If you're building any kind of workflow tool, ask yourself — what happens when nobody does anything? Your answer to that question is your core feature.
What's next
Still in early beta. Slack Directory approval pending. Zero users, full transparency. If you're dealing with approval chaos in your team, drop a comment — happy to give early access.

How I built Slack approval buttons that actually get responses (Inngest + Next.js 14)

Mahad Tahir — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 17:17:24 +0000

Every team I've seen handles approvals the same broken way. Someone sends a DM asking for approval, the approver forgets or gets busy, the requester is too scared to follow up, and days pass while the project is blocked. No paper trail, no deadline, no system.
So I built TeamAutomation — a Slack-native approval tool. Here's exactly how.
The Architecture
Three core pieces: Next.js 14 for the app and API routes, Supabase for storing approval requests and audit trail, and Inngest for scheduling smart nudges at 24hrs, 3 days, and 7 days.
The Slack Button Payload
When someone runs /approve, my API creates an approval request in Supabase, then sends an interactive Slack message with Approve/Reject buttons. Slack sends the interaction back to my Next.js API route, I update the record, and done — full audit trail automatically.
The Hardest Part
Scheduling nudges reliably. Cron jobs fail silently. Inngest solved this completely — I define the function once, it handles retries, delays, and failure recovery automatically. Game changer for this use case.
What I Learned
Build the reminder system before you build the dashboard. Users don't care about pretty UI — they care that approvals actually get resolved. The nudge system is the whole product.
Try It
Still in early beta. 14-day free trial, no credit card. If you're dealing with approval chaos in your team, drop a comment — happy to give you early access.

How I built automated reminders into a Slack approval tool with zero coding experience

Mahad Tahir — Wed, 27 May 2026 12:21:58 +0000

When I started building TeamAutomation, I thought the hardest part would be the Slack integration.
It wasn't.
The hardest part was figuring out what happens when someone just... doesn't respond.
You send an approval request. The other person is busy. They forget. The request sits there for 3 days. Meanwhile the person who sent it has no idea if it was seen, ignored, or lost.
That's the problem I needed to solve. Automated nudges.
Here's how it works in TeamAutomation:
Day 1 — If no response after 24 hours, the approver gets a reminder in Slack.
Day 3 — Still no response? Another nudge, slightly more urgent.
Day 7 — Final reminder before the request expires.
The tool I used for this is called Inngest — it handles background jobs and scheduled functions. As a non-technical founder, I didn't build this from scratch. I worked with AI tools to implement it step by step.
But the logic behind it? That came from just thinking about the real problem.
Most approvals don't fail because people are lazy. They fail because there's no follow-up system. Email gets buried. Slack messages scroll away. Nobody chases.
Automated nudges fix that without making anyone feel micromanaged.
If you're building something similar — start with the failure case. What happens when nothing happens? Build for that first.
Still at 0 users, but the system works. Onward.

I'm a non-technical founder who built a Slack approval tool. Here's what actually broke first.

Mahad Tahir — Mon, 25 May 2026 04:23:13 +0000

I have no CS degree. I have no co-founder. I have no prior SaaS experience.
Three months ago I decided to build TeamAutomation — a Slack-native approval tool that lets teams approve or reject requests directly inside Slack, with automatic reminders and an audit trail.
Here's what nobody tells you about building your first SaaS as a non-technical founder:
The product is the easy part.
Getting Slack's API approved took longer than building the first version. Writing documentation for a directory submission when you don't fully understand every technical detail is humbling. Setting up Stripe, Supabase, and deployment pipelines with zero prior experience means every small win feels massive.
The hard part is distribution.
Zero users. Zero followers. Zero reputation. You ship something real and the internet doesn't care — because it doesn't know you exist yet.
So I started doing the basics. Writing. Replying to people on Twitter. Showing up on communities like this one.
No growth hacks. Just consistency.
If you're also building alone with no technical background — I'd genuinely like to know what's been your biggest surprise so far. Mine was realizing distribution is 10x harder than the product.