Button didn't start as an app idea.

It started with a pretty simple question that my wife and I suddenly found ourselves asking all the time:

"What should Michelle wear today?"

When our daughter was born, we did what I imagine a lot of new parents do. We watched TikToks, Googled, found charts, asked ChatGPT, asked friends, and tried to somehow turn temperature, wind, sunshine and a feels-like 17°C into a sensible decision.

And we still regularly found ourselves standing in front of her wardrobe wondering what to put on her.

Long-sleeve bodysuit? Another layer? A jacket? The same in the stroller as in the carrier? And once she was dressed, we still wondered: did we get it right?

All I really wanted was an answer I could glance at and immediately understand:

This is what Michelle needs right now.

So I built Button.

I've worked as a designer and developer for more than 20 years and have built quite a few digital products along the way.

But Button was unusually personal. I wanted to build the simplest possible app for a surprisingly complicated problem.

Behind the scenes, it could be massively overengineered.

It shouldn't just look at one number in a weather app. It should consider the things that actually matter for a baby: feels-like temperature, wind, sun, rain, how the weather changes throughout the day, and most importantly, where your baby is and how they're getting around.

Because 15°C in a stroller isn't the same as 15°C in a carrier. A baby needs something different in the car than outside. And sleep is its own situation again.

But using Button should never feel complicated.

Open Button. Take a look. Know what to put on.

That was the goal from the beginning.

Built for our own everyday life.

The first versions of Button weren't meant for the App Store.

They were for us.

My wife and I tested the recommendations with Michelle in everyday life, adjusted them and kept simplifying things. Friends who had recently become parents tested it too and told us whenever something was unclear or simply didn't work in real life.

Our midwife Laura also supported us along the way and brought in her experience. What started as a relatively small idea gradually turned into a pretty detailed system. One that takes a lot into account, without ever feeling like it does.

Because parents don't need another dashboard with twenty weather values.

They need a clear answer.

At some point we realised we were actually using it every day.

After months of using Button, the question in the morning was no longer:

"What should Michelle wear today?"

It became:

"What does Button say?"

That's when I decided I didn't want to build it just for us anymore.

If Button could take one small decision off our plate every day, maybe it could do the same for other parents too.

So we made Button available to everyone.

The website is free and gives you a simple recommendation based on the current weather.

And if you want to use Button the way we do ourselves, there's the iPhone app, with your baby's profile, recommendations for stroller, carrier, car, indoors and sleep, day planning, recurring activities, packing lists, and basically everything we wished an app like this had when we first needed one.

Pretty nerdy behind the scenes. As simple as possible to use.

So you can spend less time thinking about what your baby should wear and more time simply getting out of the house together.

Built in Berlin for Michelle, and for all the other little Buttons out there.