We have seen that one of the key factors for customer retention and eventually growth is to build products that users love. But how to build products that users love? In this session of “How to start a startup” Kevin Hale, Partner, Y-Combinator (previously cofounder of Wufoo) talks about products and their influence on growth.
Growth is the interaction of two characters “Conversion” and “Churn” and the gap between the two variables determine how fast you’re going to grow.
Today we’re going to look at those interactions on a human level rather than a mathematical or statistical approach with a few practical examples.
The best way to get a billion dollars is to focus on the values that helps you get to the first dollar or first user.
First impressions are important for first time users just like going on a date. First moment for a user with your product are usually the First Email, Account Creation, Starting Interface, Login Link, Ad Link or First Support and all of these  are opportunities to put a smile on your customers’ face.
Just like marriage, every product has to overcome the problems of money, kids (users), performance, time and others like competition and partnership. If we look at the users conversion funnel, it starts with website visitors of 100% and drops down to staying users at 0.3%
Software engineers and designers are often divorced from the consequences of their actions.
Before launch all our creativity is poured into the product and we think we’ve built a dream come true, but after launch we realise creating the software was only a piece in the pie of success.
Software Development has to be injected with values like responsibility, accountability, humility and modesty which can be together termed Support Driven Development where everyone does customer support and you close the feedback loop between creators and support.
Relationships follow the second law of thermodynamics “In a close energy system things tend to run down” hence an update in feature is required for customer retention. Also, complementing  your users for their valuable time spent on your site must be appreciated.
There are only three ways to achieve market dominance and depending on how you want to achieve that market dominance you have to organise your company in a very specific way.
- Best Price
- Best Product
- Best Overall Solution
The best part is that best overall solution is the easiest to achieve at any stage of a startup and without any investments. All it needs is humility and manners to gain market dominance.
Now how do you build a product that satisfies lots of different types of users? Check out the video to know more.
How to get things started? Stay tuned for next week, until then check out How To Start A Startup !
Image Credits: medium.com, yoobros,com
