Muhammad Luthfi Arifin
Track D · 2026
01 / 14
A founder’s notes on product–market fit

The hardest
bug is
the market.

How I learned to build products people actually want.
Muhammad Luthfi Arifin · Founder, Abadikan
The product
02 / 14

It works.

  • Tests pass
  • App shipped
  • Payments live
Everything an engineer can fix
Meme: happy about zero crashes, then shocked by zero downloads
The market
Orders today
0
Customers

So why won’t anyone buy it?

The hardest bug isn’t always in your code.

Act I · WIGO, 2021–2024
03 / 14
01

We knew how to build.

Mobile, web, payments, partners, analytics. We never stopped to check who was waiting for it.

WIGO tourism app: ticket QR and destination discovery screens
Act I · WIGO, 2021–2024
04 / 14
We built
everything.
I co-founded WIGO, a B2B and B2C tourism ecosystem built from zero. Mobile. Web. Payments. Partners. Analytics.
For travelers
B2C

Tickets, wallet, discovery.

For attractions
B2B

Partner platform and dashboards.

The catch
≠

Building ≠ selling.

The mistake
05 / 14
Meme: skeleton on a bench, app developers waiting for users after doing zero marketing
What we actually did

We tested the product.
Not the market.

01Idea
02Build
03BuildMore features
04BuildEven more
05 · Sell“Wait… who actually wants this?”

A working product is not proof of demand.

Act II · Abadikan
06 / 14
02

Sell before it’s ready.

Put a rough version in front of real buyers, then let them tell us what to build.

Act II · Abadikan
07 / 14
About six months, three versions

This time, the market
was part of R&D.

V1 · Build, then sell
“Not enough.”
A first version in front of real buyers, early.
V2 · Change, sell again
“Interesting, but…”
We changed the product based on what we heard.
V3 · Change again
People pay.
Willingness to pay became the signal.
Build → Sell → Listen → Change → Repeat
Act II · Abadikan
08 / 14
Customers started showing us what to build next

The market started pulling us.

Abadikan.id digital invitation on three phones
B2C · Abadikan.idDigital invitations → gifting → event tech
Interactive hotel catalog and resort estate map on phones
B2B · One client’s requestInteractive catalog → a studio business

At WIGO, we pushed the product into the market.
At Abadikan, the market pulled the product out of us.

What changed
09 / 14
Changing the question
Before
“Can we build this?”
After
“Who needs this badly enough to pay for it?”
01

Sell early.

Test willingness to pay before building more.

02

Listen hard.

Look for pain that repeats across customers.

03

Build less.

Only build the next step the evidence supports.

Act III · AI
10 / 14
03

More signals than hands.

When the market starts pulling, the signals pile up: chats, orders, leads, dashboards. The loop slows down at “listen.”

Act III · AI
11 / 14
Where AI fits

AI didn’t find product–market fit.
It made the loop faster.

01MarketA signal: a question, a complaint, a drop.
02DataDashboards, chats, leads, orders.
03DecisionWhat do we change next?
04ActionShip it, sell it, follow up, back to the market.
MarketDataDecisionAction
AI
Shorter distance from signal to decision
Act III · AI
12 / 14
How AI actually shows up at Abadikan

AI where the business is slow.

Abadikan Metabase dashboard: revenue versus ad spend, numbers blurred
01 · Analytics · In useClaude + Metabase MCP: “what changed, and why?”
WhatsApp chat: a customer asks about revisions, Mindi explains, and the customer asks for the order link
02 · Support · In productionMindi on WhatsApp
— 03 / Sales · In productionAn agent researches, verifies and scores leads into our pipeline.
— 04 / Operations · NextRepetitive, rules-based checks are the next place to look.

The goal isn’t to put AI everywhere. The goal is to find where the business is slow.

13 / 14
Closing
Don’t just build what you can build.

Build what the market keeps asking for.

And use AI to learn faster.
Muhammad Luthfi Arifin · Founder, Abadikan
laam.my.id
What each taught me
03
01
WIGO

How to build products.

02
Abadikan

How to build with the market.

03
AI

A shorter path from signal to decision.

Don’t only ask “Can I build this?”
Ask who needs it enough to use it, pay for it, and ask for more.

Q&A
14 / 14
Your turn
Questions?
Meme: Morpheus, nobody makes it the first time

Ask me about WIGO, finding demand for Abadikan, or where AI actually helps a small business.

QR code to laam.my.id/talks/the-hardest-bug-is-the-market: slides and contact
Slides + connect laam.my.id/talks/the-hardest-bug-is-the-market
Thank you.
Muhammad Luthfi Arifin laam.my.id