Editus — Case Study · Abdel Oueryemchi

At a glance

The problem

No accessible, non-technical way for individuals and small businesses to design professional PDF publications.

What I built

A freemium web app — from UI Kit and brand to a full WYSIWYG PDF editor — as founder and Head of Product.

The result

Successfully launched, validated freemium model, growing subscriber base confirming market fit.

The problem

Design and publishing tools for creating professional-quality PDFs were either too complex or required design expertise most individuals and small businesses simply didn't have. Freelancers, marketers, sales teams, HR departments, students — anyone needing a polished PDF document had no accessible middle ground between "basic word processor" and "professional design software."

The one project here I built as founder, not as a hire — identifying the gap, building the company around it, and owning the outcome end‑to‑end.

What I built

1 Discover

I researched the target market and found the audience was far broader than expected — freelancers, marketers, sales teams, HR, students, non-profits — anyone who needed a professional-looking PDF and didn't have a design background. That breadth shaped the whole positioning: general-purpose, not niche.

2 Scope

I defined the MVP feature set: onboarding and cancellation, "Edition" and "Page" creation for organising documents, a WYSIWYG visual editor, page/bulk export, an account and billing page, and a free-vs-premium membership split. I also built the UI Kit and brand identity — mood board, colour palette, look and feel — from scratch.

3 Build

I designed and helped implement the front-end (HTML/CSS/Bootstrap), defined the user lifecycle flows for onboarding and offboarding, and built the Editus marketing website on WordPress. Development ran front-end (React) and back-end (Symfony) in parallel to get a scalable infrastructure in place from day one, with PayPal integrated for subscriptions and payments.

4 Validate & Launch

I ran the full QA cycle — test planning, test case development, execution, and regression testing — before launch, then led pre-launch marketing: customer communication flows, email templates, and social/SEO efforts to drive adoption.

5 Iterate

Post-launch, I continuously monitored usage and market trends to keep improving the product against real user feedback rather than treating launch as the finish line.

The result

0 → 1

Founder-led build — brand, product, and infrastructure from scratch

Freemium

Model validated by a growing subscriber base

Editus launched successfully, filling a genuine gap in the local PDF publication market with an intuitive, freemium product. The growing subscriber base validated both the demand and the product's fit for it — proof that the founder-led build, from brand to backend, could compete on user experience alone.

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