Tag: product

The customer is always right (but not in the way you think)

by Chris Yeh

One of the big frustrations that startups face is the disconnect between the customer-facing and product-facing sides of the company.  From time immemorial, engineers have complained about the wild promises Sales makes, while salespeople complain that engineers have no idea what the customer wants. The thing is, both sides are right. Sales doesn’t understand the … Continue reading The customer is always right (but not in the way you think)

Design Your Products for Delight and Growth

by Chris Yeh

The Verge recently ran a great longform article on the birth and death of Everpix, a startup that created a product that its users loved, but which couldn’t grow beyond its cult status: http://bit.ly/1hjPzTd The always-insightful Andrew Chen penned a great analysis of what went wrong from a growth hacking standpoint: http://bit.ly/16GNHwJ “The problem with … Continue reading Design Your Products for Delight and Growth

“Deep growth can’t be hacked”

by Chris Yeh

Another great lesson from the KISSmetrics blog and GrowthHackerTV: http://bit.ly/19Qm8xT “5. Deep growth can’t be hacked You can do things to drive traffic. You can do things to retain users. You can do things to hack growth at a surface level, but deep growth cannot be manipulated. Great products – the ones that are woven … Continue reading “Deep growth can’t be hacked”

What job are people hiring your product to do?

by Chris Yeh

I am a product guy, dating back to my days as a design student at Stanford. I’ve been a fan of Clay Christensen ever since “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” and even interviewed him for the student newspaper when I was a Harvard Business School student. Which is why I’m shocked that I hadn’t heard of Clay’s … Continue reading What job are people hiring your product to do?

Every Employee Should Think Like A Product CEO

by Chris Yeh

I really enjoyed Ben Horowitz’s TechCrunch guest post, “Why Founders Fail: The Product CEO Paradox”: http://tcrn.ch/17xSiBp Ben nailed it on the head when he said that founder/CEOs who are product visionaries flounder when they disengage from the product: “It turns out that the CEO was only world-class at the product, so she effectively transformed herself … Continue reading Every Employee Should Think Like A Product CEO

Startups Fail For The Same Reasons Restaurants Do

by Chris Yeh

Paul Graham recently gave an interview to Inc.  Maybe you’ve heard of it? http://bit.ly/15rQHsS Sadly, the “controversy” over Paul being misquoted about foreign accents has overshadowed an interview that I think is worth its weight in gold.  My favorite part of the interview is this passage: “Most of the time, start-ups fail for the same … Continue reading Startups Fail For The Same Reasons Restaurants Do

Crappy Product + Great Market = Success

by Chris Yeh

Many people in Silicon Valley, including me, advise entrepreneurs to build insanely great products.  But every once in a while, it’s a good idea to remind yourself that at the very beginning of your startup, you should focus more on finding a great market…for which you can then build an insanely great product. The founders … Continue reading Crappy Product + Great Market = Success

If People Don’t Get Your Product, It’s Your Fault, Not Theirs

by Chris Yeh

Spend enough time with any startup’s product team, and you’ll hear complaints about the customers. Many of these complaints are justified.  Customers misuse, misunderstand, and just plain miss the point of products. But blaming the user is useless, unless you’re going to find a brand new set of customers who, magically, are smart enough to … Continue reading If People Don’t Get Your Product, It’s Your Fault, Not Theirs

Build Great Products That Solve Important Problems

by Chris Yeh

If I had to boil down my best startup advice into a single sentence, I’d tell people: “Build great products that solve important problems.” If you solve an important problem, people will try and pay for your product.  Getting someone to pay for your product is the surest path to revenues. Yet simply solving an … Continue reading Build Great Products That Solve Important Problems

Don’t play to the crew, play to the audience

by Chris Yeh

Another lesson from the great Kevin Pollak.  One of the points he makes about acting is that many novices make the mistake of playing to the crew.  When you’re on the set of a movie, there is no studio audience.  The closest thing are the members of the crew–all the gaffers, grips, and best boys … Continue reading Don’t play to the crew, play to the audience