In building Kalbeja, the most important lessons came not from code but from the families who tried the app in real life.

When we started building Kalbeja, we had plenty of ideas about how everything should work. But we soon understood a simple thing: the best solution comes not from what we imagine in front of a screen, but from real families who use the app all day long — at breakfast, while playing, on the way outside, at bedtime — and for whom it has to work right here and now, with no preparation. So, well before the public launch, we tested Kalbeja together with families in Lithuania.

It was a humbling experience. Quite a few things we were proud of turned out not to matter in everyday life, while a few we had considered minor details became essential. Some of our decisions changed not after long discussions but after a single sentence from a mother or an educator. Here are five observations families taught us — and which genuinely changed the app.

1. Simplicity matters more than an abundance of features

The first thing we heard: parents do not need yet another complicated system. They need a tool they can understand in a few minutes, not in a week. So one of our most important goals became very concrete — that the first cards can be created in under ten minutes. Every time something seemed confusing, we asked not “how do we explain this better” but “how do we remove or simplify it altogether”. The real test is always the same: can a tired mum or dad manage it in the evening without instructions.

2. What matters most to a child is their own world

We saw the same thing again and again: a child recognises their own cup, their own dad or their own yard far faster than a pretty but unfamiliar picture. To a child, a generic symbol is first of all a puzzle to be decoded; a real photo poses no such puzzle. We noticed the same with sound — a mum's or dad's voice on a card sounds exactly the way the child hears that word every day. That is why Kalbeja is built on real photos of the child's surroundings and the voice of someone close to them. Families confirmed this far more clearly than we could ever have decided on our own.

3. Order and predictability are calming

Many parents told us how important it is for a child to know what comes next. When the day becomes predictable, tension eases and there is more room to communicate — the child no longer has to worry about the unknown. This encouraged us to improve the day plan and make it more flexible: so that every family can arrange its own rhythm rather than adapt to ours. For one family the morning matters most; for another, the transition from play to dinner — the same rules do not suit everyone. We understood that it is not for us to say what a good day looks like; the family itself knows that best.

4. Parents want to be guided, not left on their own

Perhaps the most common feeling we heard was that, until now, families had felt alone. A tool that simply hands over cards and disappears does not help: parents are left with good technology but without an answer to the question “what do I do with it”. That is why Kalbeja has not only a board but a built-in methodology — short steps that calmly explain how to use the cards every day, without pressure and without rush. Families showed us that this guidance is often more important than the app itself: a person who walks alongside you changes everything.

5. The essentials always stay within reach

A child's first words should not wait behind a paywall. That is why Kalbeja's core communication board stays free and always at hand — with the essential features we tried and tested together with families: parents can create cards, and the child can touch them, hear the voice of someone close and be heard. Wider possibilities — a larger card library, the day plan, the full learning programme — open up with Kalbeja Pro. But the road to communication itself always begins free of charge, and for us that is a principle, not marketing.

Why this matters to us

These observations are not marketing stories but the result of real testing. Every version of the app changed according to what we saw and heard: some features became simpler, others appeared, still others we let go of. A few examples:

  • “My child can’t tell a category from a card” — categories now have a photo, a voice and a folder look.
  • “Rebuilding the day plan every morning takes too long” — weekday templates appeared, applied with a single tap.
  • “‘Want’, ‘more’, ‘finished’ must always be visible” — that is how core words came about: they stay on the board in every activity.

This way of building is slower but more honest — because the tool for a child is chosen not by us but by the family and the educator, for whom it has to work every day.

And that is how it will continue: we will listen, fix and improve. The best version of Kalbeja is not something we build alone — we build it together with the families and educators who need it.