Week #2 ODNC – Steady State!
Hi, I’m Kavir! Here's recapping Week #2 of ODNC1. We've seen folks already ship products and launch on Twitter. This cohort is amazing.
If you're new here, I’ll be chronicling the 10 weeks of ODNC1 with key takeaways of events, noteworthy quotes, and my perspective while I build in public. Subscribe to get updates:
This week was another mix of noteworthy events, including, fireside chats with Ryan Hoover from Product Hunt and Helen Mayer from Otter. And there were a bunch of workshops and community-led events, including ones by Prakash Chandran from Xano, and KP!
It’s been a fortnight now, and the craziness has slowed down a bit. Everyone seems to have figured out a schedule and method that works best for them.
Having said that, let’s dive into the noteworthy takeaways from Week #2:
Prakash Chandran – Xano
Prakash is the Co-founder and Head of Product at Xano, an upcoming no-code backend service. He talked to us about Customer Journeys!
Value to customers
Every brand, product, or service makes a promise to the customer. The best products continuously analyze and improve the customer's journey from that promise to value.
I really appreciated the simplification of what a product or service does for the customer. By understanding the customer journey, you can bridge that gap between expectations and perceived value.
4 Stages of Customer Journey
Discovery - Initial Awareness
Onboarding - Learning the ropes on how-to-operate
Habit Building - upskilling, unlocking abilities
Mastery - Exploring the edges of the world
Prakash drew an analogy with game design and provided these 4 stages. He also showed us an example of how he set up his metrics to reflect these 4 stages to understand the funnel of customers in this journey.
I took this learning and implemented similar metrics for the company I work at.
Move customers through the funnel
Add motivation - How do I motivate my users to take the next step in their journey?
Remove friction - How do I make it easier for them to take that step?
Once again, the message was simplified and it cut through the noise.
Ryan Hoover – Product Hunt
Ryan needs no introduction. He had a free-wheeling discussion with our cohort on a bunch of topics. Here are the 3 most valuable takeaways:
Writing as a vehicle to learn
Before Product Hunt, I was actually writing a lot. I saw writing as a vehicle to learn and express myself. Some of the things I was writing on was why I thought Tinder was really interesting or compelling. In 2013, I wrote 150 blog posts.
I strongly resonate with this thought, which is why it is the driving force for this and my other Substack, ‘The Discourse’.
Coding is not the risk
Now, a lot of the projects people are building, the coding side is not the risk. A lot of the risk is in distribution, marketing, and go-to-market. Or the nuances and subtle details of building a product that people love.
I am leaning towards this aspect of tech startups more and more. You need product + distribution to make it successful. And with no-code, the barriers to entry of building tech products is diminishing. The expertise lies in truly understanding what the customer wants and how to reach them effectively.
Do things that don’t scale
In the early days of Product Hunt, I would send 50-100 emails everyday to people signing up and welcoming them. I did it manually through my Gmail. For example, I would see where they were working and would say something relevant to their workplace.
You should treat your early customers like royalty. In fact, you can do the same with personalized video. In our previous Mastermind session, Philip Lakin mentioned how he was sending a personalized video message to new subscribers. Loom, Vimeo, and a bunch of similar tools make this possible.
Helen Mayer – Otter
Helen Mayer is the founder of Otter, a tool that connects parents looking for childcare with stay-at-home parents who can take care of their kids. She talked to ODNC1 about her journey with Otter.
Approaching customer discovery
To find product-market fit, you need to do no-code + put yourself out there in a way that can be intimidating and scary. But I had a system of talking to everybody.
The fundamentals of providing customer value don’t change due to code or no-code. "Make something people want" still holds true.
Qualify your early customers
As much as customer discovery is important, the anti-customer discovery is more important. When any one signs up for what you are building, start engaging with people before they start using it to make them a qualified beta user.
It might seem counter-intuitive to put forward a long Typeform to the user before they sign up. But qualifying customers is becoming increasingly important to shape your market to your product, rather than the other way around.
Disintermediation and liquidity in a marketplace
If you can retain one side of the marketplace, you can retain the other side of the marketplace too.
To the liquidity aspect, due to COVID restrictions, families are only matched one-to-one. Childcare is a slow marketplace built on a relationship of deep trust, unlike Uber which is a fast marketplace.
I've never read about the distinction between fast and slow marketplaces before, so this was a fascinating insight that requires a deeper dive into.
KP – On Deck
KP spoke to us about Building in Public (This Substack is an example of learning and building in public).
Why does Building in Public work?
People always love stories - like autobiographies, behind-the-scenes, and journeys.
What is it really?
What is it Not?
It is not a silver bullet, not a way to go viral, not a shortcut to fame or the hype train.
My Build in Public Journey
Things have moved slowly this week due to the juggling of responsibilities between work, ODNC1, and life.
Prepared questions to ask Founders according to the Mom Test (thanks, Dan Parry for the list of questions)
Narrowed down on a Webflow template to create the landing page
Others in the cohort who are building in public:
Kyleigh Smith
Corey Haines
That’s it for this week! See you next time.
Follow me on Twitter @KavirKaycee!
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