Client's "AI expert" built a 312-node monster that crashed daily. I rebuilt it with 23 nodes. It's been running flawlessly for 4 months. THE DISASTER HANDOVER Client calls me, frustrated: "Our workflow is completely broken" Me: "What happened?" Client: "We hired an AI automation expert. Paid $25k. Now everything's worse than before" I open their n8n workspace. My screen freezes for 30 seconds just loading it. 312 nodes. Connections everywhere. Comments like "TODO: Fix this later" Error logs: 847 failures this week THE "EXPERT'S" APPROACH Their consultant's philosophy: "More nodes = more sophisticated" What I found: - 47 nodes doing the same data transformation - 23 different ways to format dates - 8 separate email validation processes - Loops inside loops inside loops - Zero error handling Client was paying $2k/month for "maintenance" Translation: Daily firefighting THE SIMPLIFICATION STRATEGY I asked one question: "What does this workflow actually need to accomplish?" Client: "Customer onboarding automation" Me: "That's it?" Client: "Well, yes" I opened my tool. Prompt: "Customer onboarding workflow: collect info, validate data, create CRM record, send welcome sequence, assign account manager, generate project folder" 9 minutes later: Clean, logical workflow. 23 nodes total. Zero redundancy. THE REBUILD DEMO Old workflow visualization: Looked like a plate of spaghetti New workflow visualization: Clean, linear, readable Client: "It's so... simple" Me: "Simple is reliable" Client: "But the other guy said complex meant powerful" Me: "Complex means fragile" THE PERFORMANCE COMPARISON Old Monster Workflow: - Processing time: 4-7 minutes - Success rate: 73% - Daily crashes: 3-5 - Maintenance hours: 15/week - Client satisfaction: Terrible New Streamlined Workflow: - Processing time: 12 seconds - Success rate: 99.8% - Crashes in 4 months: 0 - Maintenance hours: 0 - Client satisfaction: Ecstatic THE COST REVELATION Old consultant's final bill:

Agency built client a "workflow marketplace" for $89k over 14 months. I replicated it in 29 minutes and added features they couldn't deliver. This is how agencies price themselves out of the market: THE NIGHTMARE PROJECT SaaS CEO, Rachel: "We spent $89k and 14 months on an internal workflow marketplace" Me: "What were you trying to build?" Rachel: "Let employees request automations, track status, share workflows" Me: "And it doesn't work?" Rachel: "Half the features are broken, the other half are too slow" 🚩 Red flag: $89k for an internal tool that failed THE AGENCY'S "SOLUTION" What they delivered after 14 months: - Custom React frontend (buggy) - Node.js backend (performance issues) - MongoDB database (constantly crashes) - AWS infrastructure (overengineered) - User authentication (broken half the time) - Workflow builder (unusable interface) - Request system (emails get lost) - Status tracking (never updates) Monthly hosting costs: $2,400 Monthly maintenance: $4,500 Employee adoption rate: 12% Rachel: "We paid enterprise prices for a prototype" THE 29-MINUTE REBUILD Discovery call ended, opened Skada.ai: "Build internal workflow marketplace: employee request system → approval routing → automated workflow creation → status tracking → workflow sharing → usage analytics → team collaboration" 29 minutes later: ✅ Intuitive request interface ✅ Automated approval workflows ✅ Instant workflow generation ✅ Real-time status tracking ✅ Team workflow library ✅ Usage analytics dashboard ✅ Collaboration features ✅ Mobile-responsive design THE LIVE COMPARISON Rachel: "Can our team test both systems side by side?" Me: "Absolutely" Employee workflow request test: Agency System: - 6 screens to submit request - 4 different login attempts - Request disappeared twice - 12 minutes to submit - Status: "Pending" (never updated) My System: - 1 screen workflow request - Single sign-on - Request submitted successfully - 23 seconds total time - Status: "Auto-approved, building workflow"