BPN — a simple VPN for small teams and startups

In short — I shipped a VPN app for small teams and startups in two months. The road had its adventures though: time was scarce, and I wanted decisions grounded in research rather than guesswork.

The client already had working VPN technology, but no clear vision of how to present it to users — or who the target audience even was. That’s exactly what I was hired to figure out.

Research wasn’t even in the contract at first. But I wanted to work from data, so I set up quick, budget-friendly research designed not to slow development down. Yes, it delayed the start a little — but it was a profitable investment: from then on, the research sped up every decision, and both the team and the client could breathe easier.

Research

I started with JTBD-framework research — looking for a segment that already needed this VPN technology. The first hypothesis pointed to people in IT companies responsible for team VPNs. To test it, I ran about 10 in-depth interviews across roles — from CTOs to cybersecurity engineers. It took a few days and cost almost nothing: respondents came through personal contacts and LinkedIn, so they shared their thoughts willingly.

The first conclusion was critical: large corporations mostly run on internal solutions — a serious barrier to bringing the product to market.

The main discovery: the ideal users — people who need a simple team VPN — are startup founders. Startups usually have the resources, they value time and they love simple solutions like this one. So I ran another round of interviews with startup founders only — and validated the hypotheses in that specific segment.

More tests

The previous stage let me assemble a focus group and test the upcoming UX/UI decisions. I then ran sequential monadic tests using the Microsoft Desirability Toolkit — evaluating visual appeal and finding the concept that best conveyed the product’s value.

Bonus fail

Even with everything going smoothly, I wanted to convey the product’s essence through animation — especially the loading screen. After several attempts, none satisfied me. And surprise: user tests showed the animations barely affected anything. So I let it go — data beats designer pride.

Takeaway

In two months I turned challenges into opportunities — thanks to an efficient research framework and budget-friendly testing. The main goal was simple: deliver a VPN app that matches both the client’s specifications and the target audience’s expectations. Done.