The First Step For A Startup

I was recently answering the question, “What is the best first step for a startup?”

My answer is simple. The best first step for a startup is to identify your customer’s problem. That’s it.

To do this you’ll need to talk to customers. A lot of them. You should be your own customer.

An intimate understanding of the customer’s problem is a prerequisite to actually solving it. Seems obvious but you’d be surprised how often people start elsewhere (I was one of them!).

Talking to customers provides incredible insight. You’ll understand who they are. What problems they have. How they hack a solution today. You’ll emerge from those conversations with a hypothesis on how you can solve their problem(s) and provide them value. Test that hypothesis, learn, and iterate.

If you aren’t solving the customer’s problem then you aren’t building something people value. Something they’ll love and use. Without that, you don’t have much of a business.

The concept is simple. The execution is hard.

Cut The Fluff

Last year I signed up for Audible. I listen during my commute and, as a result, have dramatically increased the number of books I consume.

The majority of what I read is non-fiction. One theme across many (not all) of these books is that they could be much shorter. There’s one or two strong arguments and the rest of the book is filled with stories of how that argument was applied by somebody.

Examples are useful up to a point. After that, it’s fluff. Extra filler chapters to make the book longer and pricier. I don’t need the fluff. Give me the good stuff. Cut the fluff. It’s useless and repetitive.

Now as I start to see signs of this I’ll fast forward a bit and eventually drop the book if I feel I’ve gotten the point. That’s what makes services like Blinkist popular.

In general I’m not a fan of fluff. I try not to consume it or produce it. Writing without fluff is stronger. A product without fluff is more effective. Life without fluff is just… better.

Cut what doesn’t matter. Keep what does.

Deliver On Your Bullshit

A lot of people are focused on bullshit.

And don’t misunderstand — the bullshit matters.

That pitch you gave. The awesome perks and culture you promise recruits.That edgy marketing copy you put on your Product Hunt post. All different forms of bullshit.

FYI — Lysol won’t help

Bullshit creates expectations, and that’s why it matters.

You need to deliver. Or better yet, over-deliver.

Promise users X and Y? They better be there when a user tries your product. Plus feature Z as a cherry on top.

Good bullshit with no delivery will lead to awesome surface-level metrics, with no real substance behind them.

Don’t get lost in the number of hits, downloads, or registrations there are. Look deeper down the funnel. How many of those people actually stayed and used the product? How many would recommend it to a friend?

There is an enormous amount of money spent marketing shitty products.Pump the brakes and focus on what really matters— the value you provide to people.

Things a startup should not do

Nobody cares that your Facebook ad has a 40% conversion rate if no users stick around after clicking. It means you have a pretty picture and some good bullshit… and nothing to back it up.

For those who use and like your product: Ask them what they like and why they like it. Optimize on things that are working.

Then flip it and ask all the people who dropped or became inactive what they didn’t like. What turned them off? Why didn’t they come back?

You were able to draw them in, but there was something you didn’t deliver on. What was it?

Deliver. On. Your. Bullshit.

If you don’t, you’ll churn and burn. If you do, you’ll learn and earn.

Love what you build. Build what you love.

10 things Product Managers must do

I love being a Product Manager.

Hunter Walk defines product management as being where Science meets Art. He's right. It's a unique role in that it touches on all aspects of a business. Ty Ahmad-Taylor elaborates further, explaining:

“Product lies at the intersection of business, design and engineering. It is your role to educate business people about design and engineering, engineers about business and design, designers about engineering and business.”

Throughout the process you read a ton of email, look at many screens, and create relationships with a lot of awesome people. Yet through it all, there remains one constant: the product.

The product is your baby. You must keep its interests at heart, make it look nice, ensure it grows and matures, and (of course) tell the world how great it is.

Everyone can keep learning and improving; I strive to do so every day. But in my time working in the profession (building software specifically), here are 10 things I believe Product Managers must do:

1) Own the story.

Products need a story and the PM is the Chief Storyteller. All product strategy depends on the story you’re trying to tell. It informs what you build, when you build it, and how you go to market. In support of the story, should be an elevator pitch. Be able to describe and sell your product's value with one sentence.

2) Know your user.

Inside and out. Beyond testing and generally speaking to the user base, you should be one. Constantly play with the product and understand every different use case.

YouTube's growth is a case study in knowing your user.

Of even greater importance is togo where your users are. After being acquired by Google,YouTube famously prioritized Facebook features and an iOS app over integrating with other Google products internally. They understood, that for the product to be successful, they had to be everywhere their users were (on Facebook and iPhones).

3) Help your team.

As Ty Ahmad-Taylor’s quote above alludes to, it’s extremely important to help your product team. That means everyone: engineers, designers, QA, sales, marketing, leadership, business development, support, legal, etc.

It’s up to the Product Manager (otherwise known as the “product owner”) to create and communicate a unified vision. And more importantly, to motivate each individual to achieve the goals of the greater team.

“Here’s where we are. Here’s where we are going. And here’s how we’ll get there.”

4) Be a curator.

Having a role that deals with all aspects of a business, naturally lends itself to collecting tons of product feedback. With such a position comes the responsibility of prioritization.

All things considered, how do we rank these opportunities and investments?

This means looking at the existing strategy combined with direct user input, ideas from the development and design teams, market demand and feedback, and the competitive landscape. That all creates a backlog of features that the PM must spec out and prioritize based on the time and resources available.

5) Be the decider.

The PM is often referred to as the “CEO of the product”. I agree with this, to an extent. It’s really the job of the PM to ensure collaboration, although not consensus. For the betterment of the product, it’s important to listen to all opinions and allow everyone to be heard.

But in the face of disagreement, there needs to be a decider. A tiebreaker. As the product owner, the PM is the person to say “yes”, “no”, or “not just yet”. Whatever the verdict is, be sure everyone understands the decision-making process. That creates transparency, trust, and a more collaborative environment.

6) Focus on design.

The famous quote from Steve Jobs says, “Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works.” He couldn’t be more right. Design is massively important at an aesthetic, as well as a functional level.

A product team should work backwards from the user's goal. It should focus on solving complexities on the back-end, in order to make things incredibly easy on the front-end. Minimalism is beautiful and simplicity wins.

7) Execution.

Simple. Lay forth the goals and features that allow you to attain the aforementioned strategy. Write the requirements for those and, based on time and resources, execute them with your team.

There will be edge cases that come up along the way, and it’s important to work with the dev team to iron those out together. Get their input, see what they think, but ultimately be the decider. Make a neutral decision. Whatever is best for the product.

8) Ship!

This is huge, and yet, understated. It is kind of assumed that a product team will ship, but that’s not true. It’s crucial to set a release date because it truly reinforces all of the above. When there’s a deadline, suddenly it becomes easier to prioritize the backlog… what is really needed for version 1? The team focuses and creates realistic estimates they can deliver on.

Ultimately, it’s your job to get the product to your users. Speed counts. Build fast, release quickly, and…

9) Test & Measure.

Building fast and releasing quickly is only valuable if you’re measuring the results. One form of measuring is what I alluded to earlier. What are your users saying? How are they responding to new features?

However, it’s essential to measure not only what they say, but what they do. How do they respond to a specific screen? Are they doing what you hoped? Does a change in copy or design influence their behavior? Test. Measure. And build accordingly.

10) Love what you build. Build what you love.

This ties into all of the above. You need to be passionate. You need to love it. Live it. Without that, there’s not much else. Without that, you won’t build anything great.

If the product is truly going to be your baby, then you need to love what it is. Yet, strive to make it better. Take joy in doing so. Place your name on it. Put your reputation on the line. Love what you build, and build what you love.

To me, that’s product management. That’s the epitome of the profession I love and live every day. Over time, I’ll continue to learn and get better at it. But these are the principles I will continue to guide myself by.

Back to work...

Don’t Make Tuna Fish

The worst advice often given to entrepreneurs

We've all heard it many times.

Someone is discussing a startup success story or simply giving entrepreneurial advice, and they say…

“It’s all about the execution.”

Ugh.

Don’t get me wrong — execution matters. A lot. But when others proclaim it to be the sole criteria for success (or lack thereof), I cringe.

The idea is what matters. The execution of that idea is what will differentiate you in the market. And while that’s a significant factor in determining a product’s success, a pretty user interface means nothing if there are no users.

It’s the equivalent of having a world-class chef make me a plate of tuna fish. They could prepare it to perfection, lay it out beautifully on a dish, and serve it to me at just the right temperature. The execution is there. But at the end of the day, I still don’t like tuna fish.

The same goes for building products.

In my last post I focused on the “Just Start” concept. But that doesn't mean you should blindly pursue any idea that pops into your head. It means, do your homework. When there’s an idea you’re passionate about, that you feel is worth pursuing — then, just start and see where it takes you.

Do tons of customer discovery. Lay out your riskiest assumptions. Test your hypotheses. Validate them. Or, maybe come to find that they’re totally unfounded and you need to move in a new direction.

That is what The Lean Startup is based on (read it, if you haven’t). Don’t spend massive amounts of time and effort building something because someone told you, “it’s all about the execution.”

Principles of "The Lean Startup"

Ideas matter. Plain and simple. While there can and will be new ideas, more often than not, you’re going to build upon some form of existing demand. Something already in the market tells you 1) “people would want this other thing”, 2) “there’s an opportunity they’re missing here”, or 3) “we can do that in a much better way”.

All the execution in the world won’t help you if nobody wants the end result.

Test your idea. Confirm that it provides value people are seeking. Then, and only then, is it about the execution.

That’s the time to focus intensely on building a product and an experience that delivers said value in a compelling way. Once you’re building something people actually want. Or more simply put…

Don’t make tuna fish.