Sascha´s Thoughts

Sascha Zhang

Hello everyone,

first of all I want to apologize for the irregularity at the beginning of my blogging journey. School and other commitments have been quite demanding recently.

About a year ago I worked on a project as part of a school assignment. However, this project wasn’t just about building software, it was about understanding how a company operates and how to generate value through it.

The Beginning

At the start, we didn’t have everything figured out.

Our initial idea was to sell custom stickers. It seems like a simple and flexible product that students would actually want. However, we quickly ran into our first challenge: the school administration did not approve this idea.

This forced us to rethink our entire concept early on.

Instead of giving up, we adapted. We shifted our focus to custom T-shirt printing, which later became the foundation of our junior company, oRched.

The Real Challenge: Quality

One of the biggest challenges we faced was ensuring the quality of the printed T-shirts.

At first, the prints looked fine. The designs were clear and the shirts seemed ready to sell. However, after the first washes, problems started to appear.

Some prints:

• lost their color
• started to crack
• or peeled off partially

This was a turning point.

We realized that a product is not defined by how it looks on day one, but by how it performs over time.

Understanding the Problem

The issue wasn’t just the design, it was the entire process behind it.

We had to think about:

• the type of printing method
• the quality of the materials
• the washing conditions
• and how customers would actually use the product

What seemed like a simple product turned into a system with multiple variables.

Iteration and Improvement

Instead of ignoring the problem, we tried to improve.

We tested different approaches, adjusted the process, and paid more attention to details that we had underestimated at the beginning. This included how the print is applied and how durable it is after repeated use.

Through this process, we learned that quality is not something you assume, it’s something you validate.

What I Learned

This project taught me a lesson that goes beyond business:

A product is only as good as its long-term performance.

It’s easy to create something that looks good at first. It’s much harder to create something that stays good over time.

I also learned:

• small technical details can have a big impact
• real-world usage reveals problems you don’t expect
• feedback is essential to improvement

Reflection

Looking back, the challenges with printing and washing were some of the most valuable parts of the project.

They forced us to move beyond assumptions and actually understand what we were building.

Closing Thoughts

This experience changed how I think about products.

It’s not enough to make something that works once. It has to work consistently, under real conditions, and over time.

And that’s exactly what makes building in the real world different.