Building Product

Seibel says founders should be able to state the problem in one sentence, define a narrow first group to help, and check whether the problem can actually be solved. Poppy, an on-demand babysitting service, found that infant care required a level of trust and skill that its pool of flexible babysitters might not provide.

Seibel urges founders to identify who has the problem, how often it occurs, how intense it is, and whether those customers are reachable. Car buyers may shop only every seven years, while dealerships need to sell every day; that difference can reveal who gets more frequent value from a product. He also recommends charging early when customers will eventually pay, since free users may not have an urgent need.

Seibel says to build quickly, give the product to customers, and check that each part addresses the original problem. Early users should be desperate for a solution, not merely friends or impressive companies; Socialcam cofounder Michael’s friend Steve, then Reddit’s CEO, admitted he was glad to delete the app after it was sold. Seibel also recommends identifying customers who exploit a service or give feedback without having the problem.

Seibel recommends event based analytics, beginning with five to ten key actions and defining measurement as part of each product spec. He contrasts Justin.tv’s slow, argument driven, three month cycles with a process that starts from a company KPI, brainstorms ideas, sorts them by effort, writes a spec, and ships every week or two. At Socialcam, the team tracked DAU through new users, retention, and new content.

Seibel distinguishes a pivot, which changes the customer or problem, from iteration, which changes the solution. He says finding product market fit can take years, and points to the first iPhone’s missing 3G, limited carrier support, poor battery life, and lack of an App Store as evidence that successful products improve over time. When Justin.tv began talking to gamers, small changes such as fixing lag showed users the team was building for them.