WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BUILD GREAT PRODUCTS?

Yoav Shapira / June 27th, 2016

NO PAIN, NO GAIN• “Pain” = some problem that

someone really appreciated your solving.

• Slow, cumbersome, manual, costly, expensive things are painful.

• Duct tape ~= pain.

• “We can build something cool” != pain.

• ^ pain = $$$.

WHILE PAIN IS ~FIXED, SOLUTION IS FLEXIBLE.

• Keep an open mind, listening to your customers/users and to the market.

• Starbucks started out selling espresso makers, but realized people wanted coffee more than a machine.

• Nokia (paper mill), Flickr (game), Instagram (checkins), Avon (books), etc etc.

FAITH IT’LL GET BETTER

“The device that Jobs actually took onto the stage with him was actually an incomplete prototype. It would play a section of a song or video, but would crash if a user tried to play the full clip.”

SHOW AND TELL (MARKETING)

• Marketing is often under-rated by techies. Why?

• A good product usually does not sell itself. (Common mistake.)

• Your product will never be “ready,” much less “perfect.” Don’t wait.

• Coca Cola, an established iconic brand, has been growing marketing by ~$100M/year for many years.

• 1.9B Coke servings / day

GET OUTSIDE THE BUILDING• Opinions are inside the

building, truth outside.

• Everyone should talk to customers / users regularly. Not just sales / support.

• Don’t forget churn and closed/lost analysis. Ask people why they left.

• Listen well, act on feedback.

TIME TO WOW• Wow = pain reduced.

• Shorten the time to wow / delight / solution as much as possible.

• A version of Tylenol that works in 1 instead of 30 minutes…

• Reverse funnels, mini-WOWs, other tactics…

YOU NEED A TEAM• Recruiting is its own topic, many

people’s #1 question.

• It’s everyone’s job, not HR/recruiter’s.

• Sell the mission, the vision. That’s your best (only?) chance.

• Figure out where your target audience hangs out, then go…

• Speed wins here too, just like in building products.

STICK WITH IT

REACH OUT ANYTIME

www.YoavShapira.com