Context

Zyper AI was an early stage SaaS startup operating in the ad tech space. The team was small, and responsibilities often shifted based on immediate business needs.

I joined in an execution-focused role but was given early ownership across multiple functions. Over time, my responsibilities expanded from interface and workflow improvements to GTM research, vendor coordination, and eventually product-level decision making during a team transition.

The working environment was fast-moving and resource-constrained, which meant most decisions had to be made with incomplete information and tight timelines.

Problem

The product and supporting systems were evolving rapidly, but several operational and product-level bottlenecks slowed progress.

These included:
– Unstructured landing pages and blog workflows that slowed iteration speed
– A legacy Angular-based website that was difficult to maintain and required migration
– A sudden team transition after the CTO exited, leaving unfinished product work and constrained resources

The challenge was not just technical; it required prioritization, coordination, and structured decision making under limited time and budget.

Approach

Phase 1; Landing & Workflow Redesign

My initial responsibility focused on improving the landing page, blog workflows, and social content structure. The goal was to create reusable workflows that reduced dependency on constant redesign and allowed faster publishing cycles.

Key actions:

• Redesigned landing page structure and messaging flow
• Created repeatable blog publishing workflows
• Built a structured framework that was later handed over to a junior intern for continued execution

Phase 2; Core Product UX Optimization

Collaborating directly with the CTO, I participated in optimizing the core product experience. This involved studying competitor workflows, acting as a customer to evaluate usability, and identifying friction points. Rather than focusing on UI, the objective was to improve flow clarity, suggest UX-level enhancements, and ensure the user journey remained intuitive.

Key actions:

• Evaluated product usability from a customer perspective
• Identified and documented friction points in core workflows
• Suggested structural improvements to enhance flow clarity

Workflow Optimization; OpenAI API Usage

As part of the product optimization effort, I reviewed how prompts were structured within the core application logic to address performance bottlenecks. I identified unnecessary context expansion and worked on pruning redundant tokens to improve overall workflow efficiency without degrading output consistency.

Key actions:

• Reviewed prompt structures to identify areas of inefficient context usage
• Pruned redundant tokens to streamline the requested context
• Helped reduce response latency and improve output consistency within the product workflow

Phase 3; GTM & Market Research

Once core workflows stabilized, I transitioned into GTM-focused work. This involved researching advertising channels, understanding positioning within the ad tech landscape, and identifying potential customer acquisition pathways.

Key actions:

• Conducted competitive benchmarking across ad tech tools
• Analyzed customer-facing messaging strategies
• Supported development of structured advertising experiments

Phase 4; Website Migration Execution

A major responsibility assigned to me was managing the migration of the company website from Angular to WordPress. This required coordinating with external freelancers and maintaining delivery timelines.

Key actions:

• Identified and onboarded freelance developers
• Defined project scope and technical requirements
• Coordinated daily progress cycles
• Managed communication between stakeholders
• Oversaw payments and negotiation processes
• Ensured successful migration delivery

Phase 5; Constrained Product Delivery

After the CTO exited, the team faced resource constraints and unfinished product work. Given my existing familiarity with workflows and product context, I was assigned responsibility to help finalize a smaller but fully functional version of the product.

This required reducing scope while preserving core usability.

Key actions:

• Evaluated feature dependencies and costs
• Prioritized essential functionality
• Removed non-critical components
• Helped guide delivery toward a smaller, shippable version of the product

Insights

Working in an early stage, fast-moving team reinforced the importance of structured thinking when resources are constrained. Key observations:

• Making decisions under uncertainty often requires trading ideal technical solutions for operational clarity
• Working without structured supervision emphasizes the need to take initiative and build workflows rather than waiting for direction
• Reducing scope early is critical to shipping a functional delivery rather than expanding an incomplete one
• Ownership creates momentum; supervision alone does not

Outcome