Key Takeaways
- The problem has to be painful – ask yourself how often the person who faces this problem comes up against it, how severe it is, and how painful it is
- It’s not about the technology, but it’s about changing user behavior – this can then change the market equilibrium
- Start your pitch with the user and the problem they face
- Operate in phases – validate a little, iterate, then validate the next set of questions. Validate the problem, iterate on a solution, etc. You don’t need to have everything worked out and answered from day 1, but you do need conviction. Focus is the key. Determine the phases and operate by them. Your first and only goal to start should be finding PMF and this is typically indicated by retention (D90 >30% or MAUs)
- For example, we’ll first find PMF, then iterate on a business model, then scale, and in 5 years go global.
- Conversion typically happens with 3 uses. Do everything you can to get your user to this point
- The user funnel is your map. Find every barrier and leak and try to solve for it
- Must be able to answer “Who are your users and where are they?” and, importantly, must have reached PMF (strong retention) before it’s worth trying to grow aggressively
What I got out of it
- A simple, powerful book for entrepreneurs, describe the mindset of focusing solely on the problem rather than your solution, putting the customer and their pains first, and understanding that retention is correlated with PMF. If people aren’t getting value, they won’t come back.