Designing a Messaging Domain Beyond WhatsApp

Introducing WhatsApp as our first channel in a new messaging domain turned out to be less of a technical project and more of an exercise in product strategy, diplomacy, and learning just how many rules a messaging platform can have before you start questioning your life choices. What began as a simple “send a message” feature quickly turned into navigating approval flows, cost models, conversation windows, user expectations, and the need for a domain design that wouldn’t collapse the moment a second provider inevitably joined the fray.

This talk reflects on how our team had to change our mindset from “implement WhatsApp” to “build a messaging domain that just happens to start with WhatsApp.” The audience will learn how early research helped shape the project scope, how we applied product engineering and MVP thinking to keep that scope as lean as possible, and how carefully drawing domain boundaries reduced long-term risk. It’s a practical look at product thinking, collaboration, and controlled chaos, which reminds us that messaging isn’t just about tech; it’s also about the art of working with constraints we definitely didn’t ask for.