Hatch Labs
Everyday problems, properly solved.
We build software for the small, stubborn problems people put up with at work every day: the feedback that gets lost between a review and a fix, the spreadsheet nobody can trust because nobody knows what changed. We pick one, work out why it keeps happening, and build a tool that makes it go away.
What we do
We build the thing that replaces the workaround.
Most everyday problems already have a workaround. A screenshot with a red arrow. A file called “v3 final FINAL”. A message that starts “you know the one I mean”. The workaround is the sign that something is worth building.
Each project starts from a specific annoyance, and each one is finished to the standard of a product: sign-in, permissions, an audit trail, and sensible behaviour when something goes wrong.
How we work
Four rules we hold ourselves to.
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01
Start with the annoyance.
We write down what people do today, step by step, before we design anything. If we can't describe the workaround, we don't understand the problem yet.
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02
Go where the work already is.
People shouldn't have to move into a new tool to fix an old problem. Our tools sit inside the browser and the spreadsheet people already have open.
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03
Do the hard part properly.
The difficult part is rarely the screen you see. It is what happens when two people edit at once, when the page changes underneath a comment, or when the data is ten times bigger than the demo.
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04
Say what it can't do.
When a tool hits a limit, it tells you so plainly. A clear message beats a silent failure every time.
Selected work
Two problems we got tired of.
Browser extension & web app
Feedback that stays on the thing it's about
Reviewers click any element on any web page and leave a comment pinned to it. The team sees the same pin in the same place, replies in a thread, and moves it from Pending to Resolved. No screenshots, no “which button did you mean?”.
Read the write-upGoogle Sheets add-on
A spreadsheet that remembers every change
An add-on that gives a sheet a real history: who changed which row, when, and exactly which words. It brings content in from documents, tracks every edit, and writes formatted documents back out.
Read the write-up