What replaced 18 old tools
This note comes from self-directed R&D, the second of six on how I build with AI. A few years ago my product stack had a tool for each job. I count 18 categories, go to market included.
Most of them folded into fewer, broader tools. Linear took roadmaps and tasks. PostHog took analytics, experiments, flags, session replay, tag management and most of marketing automation. Claude Design and v0 took design and prototyping, and Figma stays if designers use it. Attio, Clay and Common Room cover go to market.
| Then | Now | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Roadmapping | Linear | covered |
| Task management | Linear | covered |
| Collaboration | SlackWorkspaceNotion | covered |
| Product analytics | PostHogMotherDuck | covered |
| Experiments and flags | PostHog | covered |
| Session replay | PostHog | covered |
| User feedback | PostHogGranola | covered |
| Tag management | PostHog | covered |
| Knowledge base | MintlifyPlain | covered |
| Design and prototyping | Claude Designv0Figma | covered |
| Onboarding | Claude Codeflows built in-app | covered |
| User testing | Listen LabsPostHogGranola | covered |
| Translation | ClaudeClaude Codeglossary and review built in | covered |
| CRM | Attio | covered |
| Lists and enrichment | Clay | covered |
| Buying signals | Common RoomPostHog | covered |
| Marketing automation | PostHog WorkflowsResend | covered |
| Customer data platform | PostHogMotherDuck | covered |
New since then
Two of the old gaps closed because Claude Code builds what a tool used to sell. Onboarding flows are built into the app, and translation gets its glossary and review step built in. Listen Labs closed the last one: an AI runs user interviews at scale, so user testing no longer needs a tester panel.
Some layers are new. Agents, connectors, a warehouse, background jobs, AI evals and shared knowledge weren't categories before.
The tradeoff is that a lot now rides on PostHog. Fewer tools means fewer places for the numbers to drift. It also means one vendor holds most of my product data. That's a bet I'm happy to make, because PostHog ships faster than I can find gaps.
