---
type: podcast-episode
slug: 05-joni-juup-intentface
number: 5
title: Intentface's Build-First Method
guestName: Joni Juup
guestTitle: Co-founder & CDO
guestLinkedin: 'https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonim/'
guestCompany: Intentface
guestCompanyUrl: 'https://www.intentface.com/'
guestBio: >
  Joni Juup is co-founder and CDO of Intentface — a designer and developer by
  craft, not a slide-deck strategist. He has spent about twenty years in the
  field, chaining language models together in a drag-and-drop playground and
  demoing it at Web Summit in 2022, roughly two months before ChatGPT launched,
  after working on machine-learning solutions at Silo AI. Today he works as an
  AI development partner to SaaS companies like Vainu, Agileday, and Jobilla,
  coming in as a catalyst to ship working proof-of-concepts fast.
hosts:
  - slug: tapio-haaja
summary: >-
  For one episode the show flips and the usual interviewer takes the guest
  chair. Joni Juup has helped a long list of SaaS companies build agentic
  experiences, so he has seen the same problems surface again and again. He
  shares his build-first method — picture the best possible outcome first, then
  walk back the steps — and why you should focus on the problem, not the
  technology.
hook: >-
  The show flips — the usual host becomes the guest, and Joni Juup shares his
  stupid-simple build-first method — picture the best possible outcome, then
  walk back the steps.
youtubeId: _ohSJTWQnGk
spotifyUrl: 'https://open.spotify.com/episode/6W9q3v1ztnYhfLfYG4kJP7'
appleUrl: >-
  https://podcasts.apple.com/fi/podcast/building-agentic-experiences/id1886740996?i=1000775169066
publishedAt: '2026-07-02'
updatedAt: '2026-07-02'
chapters:
  - time: '00:00'
    label: Intentface origin story
  - time: '05:58'
    label: Evolving AI development
  - time: '12:47'
    label: SaaS AI journey
  - time: '18:53'
    label: Enterprise AI adoption
  - time: '38:55'
    label: Hiring AI talent
---

For one episode, the show flips. Normally Joni Juup is in the other chair asking the hard UX questions — this time he's the guest, and Tapio Haaja does the interviewing. The reason is simple: Joni has helped build agentic experiences for a long list of SaaS companies, so he's seen the same problems show up again and again across very different products. What actually works, what keeps breaking, and what the safe bets are right now.

A designer and developer by craft, Joni was chaining language models together in a drag-and-drop playground before ChatGPT existed, demoing it at Web Summit in 2022 roughly two months before the launch that changed everything. He worked on machine-learning solutions at Silo AI before co-founding Intentface, and now comes in as an AI development partner to companies like Vainu, Agileday, and Jobilla — a catalyst who ships the first working proof-of-concept fast enough that something clicks.

## What we cover

- **The build-first method.** Picture the best possible outcome first, then walk back the steps to build it — and keep the technology and its restrictions out of the conversation until you know what "best" looks like.
- **Focus on the problem, not the technology.** When you're a hammer, everything's a nail. The teams that win start from the use case, not the model.
- **Intentface as catalyst.** How Joni comes into companies like Vainu, Agileday, and Jobilla to ship the first working proof-of-concept fast — the moment something clicks and the team is off to the races.
- **Hands-on or nothing.** Why you can't lead an AI transformation you're not doing yourself, and why prompting only comes from failing a lot.
- **Enterprise adoption, from the inside.** Lessons from Tapio's Sanoma years — give licenses to everyone, pick AI champions, and bring in peer examples from people's own vertical.
- **The thinning middle.** Code production used to be the bottleneck; now it isn't, and the hard part is deciding what to build — plus a low-tech life hack for thinking it through.
- **Roles are changing.** Why 10x engineers become 100x, what happens to junior positions, and the case for high-agency generalists over job titles.