Developing a SaaS product is filled with challenges, experimentation, and valuable insights. When we set out to create Expedoc, our goal was to simplify healthcare scheduling by automating administrative tasks and giving medical professionals more time for patient care. But along the way, we learned that building a successful SaaS platform is about understanding the target audience, refining the business model, and making smart technology decisions.
Whether you're planning to develop a SaaS product or improve an existing one, the lessons we learned can help you navigate the SaaS development process more effectively. Here are four key takeaways from our experience.
1. Transferable skills matter more than industry-specific knowledge
One of the biggest realizations during SaaS product development was that technology is often transferable across industries. While healthtech has its own regulations and challenges, the core principles of SaaS application development—like cloud infrastructure, automation, scheduling logic, and user experience—are applicable to many industries.
For example, the scheduling module in Expedoc could just as easily be used for restaurants, logistics companies, or corporate workforce management. The technical aspects of automating availability, managing workflows, and reducing scheduling conflicts remain the same.
This means that a strong SaaS development team doesn’t necessarily need deep industry knowledge upfront. Instead, focusing on the right technology stack, cloud services, and project management tools ensures the product can adapt to different target markets. The key takeaway? Leverage transferable technical expertise rather than getting stuck in industry silos.
2. Always get feedback from the end users
No matter how well you understand a problem, your target audience will always have insights that can improve your SaaS software product. When developing Expedoc, we didn’t just rely on our own assumptions—we actively sought user feedback from healthcare professionals.
We attended the HLTH conference, and I spoke with doctors, nurses, and administrators and directly asked:
What do you think of this scheduling feature?
Does this actually reduce administrative workload?
What functionality would make your daily work easier?
This process of gathering user feedback helped us refine the core functionality of our SaaS solution, ensuring it was solving real problems rather than just being another piece of software. Customer feedback also helped us prioritize feature development—some ideas we thought were essential turned out to be unnecessary, while others we hadn’t considered became critical additions.
The key lesson? Analyzing customer feedback and engaging with end users early helps build a product that truly meets the needs of its market.
3. Know when to use AI—and when not to
AI is an incredibly powerful tool in SaaS application development, but one of the most important lessons we learned was that AI should assist, not replace, human decision-making—especially in industries dealing with sensitive data, like healthcare.
When we built Expedoc’s AI-powered scheduling, our goal was to automate repetitive tasks and optimize workflow efficiency. AI was great at:
Analyzing appointment requests and suggesting optimal scheduling times.
Balancing workloads to prevent overbooking.
Reducing administrative burdens by auto-filling forms and processing routine requests.
However, we quickly realized that AI has limitations, particularly in handling complex decision-making. Healthcare scheduling isn’t just about availability; it involves unique patient needs, emergency situations, and last-minute changes. AI could suggest the best schedule, but a human still needed to review and approve it.
The key takeaway? AI should enhance the user experience, not take over critical processes. When developing a SaaS software product, it’s essential to find the right balance—using AI for efficiency while keeping human oversight in areas where judgment is required.
4. Simplicity wins over feature overload
Early in SaaS product development, it’s tempting to add as many features as possible to make your platform seem more powerful. We made this mistake, too—initially planning multiple SaaS tools, from inbox management to a CRM integration and ambient listening. However, through user feedback, we realized that more features don’t always mean a better product.
Instead of building an overwhelming, complex system, we shifted our focus to solving one core problem exceptionally well—automating scheduling. By prioritizing core functionality, we were able to:
Ensure seamless integration with existing hospital software systems.
Keep the intuitive user interface clean and easy to navigate.
Reduce onboarding time for new users.
The lesson here? A great SaaS product focuses on the essentials first. It’s better to launch a minimum viable product (MVP) with a few well-optimized features and expand based on customer feedback than to overwhelm users with unnecessary complexity.
