Pick a scenario
Each one assumes the lessons of the one before it. The palette is scoped deliberately — not everything offered belongs in the answer.
First Real Customers
You run a helpdesk SaaS. Support teams at other companies use it to track their tickets. You have just signed your 500th customer organisation -- roughly 25,000 end users, all in one country, all on the web app.
The Front Page
You run a recipe site. It has been quietly profitable for years on one server and a database, serving maybe 200 people at a time.
Receipts and Payments
You build expenses software for small businesses. It does two things.
The Render Queue
You work on a design tool. Two of its features are expensive.
Everything Downstream
Every time someone edits a design, several things need to know.
A Billion Designs
There are over a billion designs. One database cannot hold them, and has not been able to for two years.
The Viral Deck
Users can publish a design as a public page. Most are read by nobody.