2025
Idea Bank
A lightweight internal idea platform, taken from discovery to MVP launch in two weeks, solo, with AI-assisted development.
As part of Juniper, Arbisoft’s internal innovation initiative, I built the Idea Bank: a platform where employees submit, discuss, and build traction around product ideas. I ran discovery, scoped the MVP, and built, tested, and launched it myself, no dedicated engineering team, just AI-assisted tools and a disciplined, tight scope.
Role
Product lead & solo builder
Timeline
2 weeks, concept → launch
Adoption
200+ employees
Context
Juniper needed a home for product ideas
Juniper is an internal initiative I lead at Arbisoft to build stronger product thinking, experimentation, and innovation across the company. Idea Bank grew out of it: a lightweight platform where employees could submit ideas, discuss them, and build traction around the ones worth pursuing.
The goal wasn’t just to collect ideas. It was to create a visible space where product conversations could happen more naturally across teams, not just inside product or leadership.
The Challenge
Good ideas with nowhere to go
Arbisoft had plenty of product-minded people, but no structured channel for ideas to surface, evolve, and gain traction. Good ideas were scattered across Slack threads, hallway conversations, and personal notes. Some people had ideas but didn’t know where to take them; others wanted to build on someone else’s thinking but had no shared space to even find it.
The deeper challenge was cultural, not operational. Through Juniper, we wanted product conversations to feel like anyone’s territory, problems, opportunities, ideas, not something reserved for PMs or leadership.
Build a low-friction platform where anyone at Arbisoft could share an idea, engage with someone else’s, and help the good ones move toward evaluation and incubation.
Approach
Product thinking and solo execution, in two weeks
I approached Idea Bank like a product from day one, and took it from discovery to MVP launch in two weeks. Discovery came first: understanding why ideas weren’t being shared consistently, what friction got in the way, and what would make people comfortable contributing. That shaped a focused MVP scope, small enough to build fast, test internally, and improve from real usage.
There was no dedicated engineering or sprint team behind it. I built and launched the platform myself using AI-assisted development tools, handling the product thinking, scope, build, QA, launch, and iteration end to end.
- Submit an idea, browse what others had shared, upvote, and comment
- Small gamification layered on top, leaderboards, badges, awards, to make participation feel visible and rewarding without becoming the product itself
Running it as an experiment
Two bets, tested at once
People will share, if it’s easy
That employees had ideas worth sharing, as long as the process to contribute was simple enough to lower the activation energy.
AI can stand in for a delivery team
That AI-assisted development could take a product manager from concept to a working launch without waiting on a traditional engineering team.
What made this complex
Not a feature problem, a behavior problem
01
Simple, but structured
The product had to feel simple enough for anyone to use, but structured enough that the ideas stayed useful. Too formal, and people hesitate to contribute. Too casual, and nothing is actionable.
02
Earning trust
People needed to believe that submitting an idea was worth it, that it would be seen, and that good ideas had a real shot at moving forward.
03
PM and builder, at once
The build was its own experiment in AI-assisted development. I had to define scope, make trade-offs, test flows, and fix issues, while keeping the product focused enough to launch in two weeks.
Outcome
A space that changed who gets to have product ideas
Idea Bank has been adopted by 200+ employees at Arbisoft, creating a visible space for people to share, discuss, and build on product ideas.
It also surfaced a pattern worth noticing: some people are strong at spotting problems and proposing ideas, others are excited to execute and refine them. Idea Bank brought both groups into the same space, and let them find each other.
Beyond the product itself, Idea Bank became part of Juniper’s broader product incubation engine, giving Arbisoft a practical way to capture internal ideas, build product conversations, and identify concepts worth deeper evaluation.
200+
Employees actively using Idea Bank
2 weeks
From discovery to MVP launch
Solo
Built end-to-end with AI-assisted development, no dedicated eng team
Idea Bank became proof of what AI-assisted solo development can unlock for product managers, not a replacement for engineering teams, but a way to move faster from idea to working product when the scope is clear and the process is disciplined.