✍️We thought we were building an automation tool.Our user told us otherwise.
After our last post about Hermes,we received many comments.
At first,we expected feedback about the technical side:
Make scenarios,Telegram flows,Notion structure,etc.
But that's not what happened.
Instead,something interesting emerged.
1."People don't buy tools.They buy outcomes."
This line appeared in different forms across multiple comments.
It made us realize something uncomfortable:
We were talking about automation,but users were thinking about results.
They don't care about:
.Webhooks
.Workflows
.Integrations
They care about:
"what does this actually do for me?"
2.We were building a tool.But users saw a system.
A lot of comments pointed out something we didn't fully see:
This is not just a bot.
It's not just a workflow.
It's a system.
A sale system that connects:
Telegram→automation→CRM→payment→delivery
And framing matters more than we expected.
Because "tool" thinking hides value.
"system" thinking reveals it.
3.The real value is not automation.It's simplicity.
One of strongest insights from the comments was:
User don't want more automation.
They want less thinking.
Less friction.
Less decision-making.
Less manual steps.
The real product is not:
"automating workflows"
It is :
"removing the complexity of selling digital products"
Where this leaves us
We now realize Hermes is not:
.a Telegram bot
.a Make workflow
.a Notion integration
It is:
A sales system for solo creators selling digital products.
What we're changing next
Based on this feedback,we are reframing everything around:
.outcomes instead of tools
.systems instead of features
.simplicity instead of flexibility
Final thought
This shift came directly from many comments.
Not from our roadmap.
Not from our assumptions.
But from real users telling us how they interpret what we built.
If you're building something similar:
Are you selling tools... or outcomes?
The most important shift here is actually subtle—you didn’t change what the product does, you changed the abstraction layer you communicate at. “Automation tool” describes mechanics. “Sales system” describes intent. Users almost always evaluate intent first and only later justify it with features. That mismatch is usually where positioning breaks, not in the product itself.
You completely nailed the buyer psychology here.We fell into the classic developer trap of assuming people would buy the product because our underlying workflow were neat and optimized.But like you said,users evaluate the intent first-they just want a hands-off system to handle their digital sales headache.Once they buy into that intent,then they look at the features to make sure it actually works.We're entirely backward,trying to get them to justify the features before they even cared about the intent.
That's exactly why I thought it was interesting.
Once a positioning shift starts changing how you think about the business itself, it usually stops being a messaging question and becomes a strategic one.
I have a couple of observations on where that can lead next, but they're easier to explain than squeeze into a thread.
If you're interested, what's the best email to reach you on?