This is a summary of a YouTube video "Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing with Adora Cheung (How to Start a Startup 2014: 4)" by Y Combinator!
4.8 (62 votes)
Validate your startup idea by researching competitors, creating a minimal viable product, and talking to users to get honest feedback before launching it.
๐ค
00:00
Dedicate time to understanding your startup idea and validate it by talking to people before launching it.
๐
08:51
Do competitor research, identify customer segments, create a minimal viable product, craft a one-liner, and get your first few users to test it.
๐ฆ
15:33
We handed out freebies and got people to book cleanings, then went out to talk to users to get honest feedback.
๐
19:48
Optimize for growth by manually doing tasks, implementing an online application process, tracking customer retention, and collecting reviews and ratings to get honest feedback from paying users.
๐ค
26:28
Focus on creative strategies to acquire users at a lower cost and launch your product as soon as possible to get user feedback.
๐ค
33:48
Deliver a great experience and measure customer lifetime value (CLV) and retention to achieve sticky growth.
๐ค
39:45
Optimize customer touch points, program mechanics, and conversion flow to create an effective referral program, and consider paid growth to acquire customers and ensure a profit.
๐ค
44:34
Stick to a 3-month payback time for high-risk customers, focus on one or two key features to differentiate your product, and pivot if growth isn't seen after 3-4 weeks.
Detailed summary
๐ค
00:00
Dedicate time to understanding your startup idea and validate it by talking to people before launching it.
Take my advice as directionally good guidance, but remember that every business and situation is different.
Dedicate large chunks of time to immersing yourself in your startup idea to avoid context switching and novice approaches.
Verify your problem statement by talking to people and launch your product on TechCrunch to get initial user feedback.
We spent almost a year trying to create a platform for life coaches and therapists, but it wasn't something we were passionate about and it wasn't a problem we had, so it's important to think before building a product.
Immersing yourself in an industry to understand its inefficiencies is key to disrupting it.
To gain a better understanding of a service, one should experience it firsthand by getting a job in the industry.
๐
08:51
Do competitor research, identify customer segments, create a minimal viable product, craft a one-liner, and get your first few users to test it.
Competitor research should be done obsessively, including reading all articles, financials, and earnings calls to uncover golden nuggets.
Identify customer segments, become an expert in the industry, and storyboard out the ideal user experience before creating the product.
Build a minimal viable product to solve a problem, talk to users, and have a simple product positioning.
We found that a one-liner is essential to describe the functional and emotional benefits of a product or brand.
Get your first few users by using it yourself and reaching out to online and local communities.
We tried Homejoy ourselves and convinced our parents in Milwaukee to use it, but we had difficulty convincing people in Mountain View and elsewhere to use it.
๐ฆ
15:33
We handed out freebies and got people to book cleanings, then went out to talk to users to get honest feedback.
We handed out free cold water bottles at a street fair and were able to get people to book cleanings.
Go to places where people are trying to ship products and try to get them to use your product instead.
To get the best feedback for your product, go out and talk to your users, send surveys, and provide a way for them to contact support.
To get honest feedback from users, make it a conversation and make them feel comfortable.
๐
19:48
Optimize for growth by manually doing tasks, implementing an online application process, tracking customer retention, and collecting reviews and ratings to get honest feedback from paying users.
Tracking customer retention and collecting reviews and ratings are good ways to measure success over time.
Be wary of the honesty curve when gathering feedback from people, as it can vary depending on the level of separation from you.
Friends will give honest feedback on your product, while family may be biased and give more positive feedback.
To get the best feedback before launching a product, make people pay for it quickly to get real feedback from paying users.
Optimize for the next stage of growth by manually doing tasks to understand what features you need to build.
We implemented an online application process to reduce the time spent on interviewing and increase our acceptance rate, while still being able to ask questions to identify good performers.
๐ค
26:28
Focus on creative strategies to acquire users at a lower cost and launch your product as soon as possible to get user feedback.
Don't worry about perfection and edge cases when building something, but beware of the Frankenstein approach when taking user feedback.
Don't pile on features to hide a problem, instead solve the problem before shipping the product.
Launch your product as soon as possible to get user feedback and avoid waiting for someone to copy your idea.
Focus on one channel for a week, iterate on it when it works, and revisit failed channels over time.
To succeed in growth marketing, you need to be creative and find the little things that no one else is doing to acquire users at a lower cost.
Sticky, viral, and paid growth are three types of sustainable growth strategies.
๐ค
33:48
Deliver a great experience and measure customer lifetime value (CLV) and retention to achieve sticky growth.
Delivering a good experience leads to sticky growth, which can be measured by looking at CLV and retention.
Cohort analysis is a way to measure customer lifetime value (CLV) by looking at the net revenue a customer brings in over a certain period of time.
In March 2012, 100% of people used a product, and 50% returned two months later.
Retention should flatten out over time, with more people sticking with you than dropping off, creating a core customer base.
To achieve viral growth, deliver a great experience and have a good referral program with customer touch points.
๐ค
39:45
Optimize customer touch points, program mechanics, and conversion flow to create an effective referral program, and consider paid growth to acquire customers and ensure a profit.
After signing up for a product, customers can be asked to invite their friends, or after they have used the product and are highly engaged, they can be asked to share it with others.
Optimize customer touch points, program mechanics, and conversion flow to create an effective referral program, and consider paid growth.
You should think of paid growth as investing money to get customers, with the goal of making more money than your customer acquisition cost.
CAC is calculated by dividing CPC by conversion rate, and CLV minus CAC should be more than zero to ensure a profit.
Aggregate customers by segment to ensure you don't mix different cohorts together when buying ads.
๐ค
44:34
Stick to a 3-month payback time for high-risk customers, focus on one or two key features to differentiate your product, and pivot if growth isn't seen after 3-4 weeks.
Businesses should be aware of the risks of unsustainable growth and should stick to a 3-month payback time for high-risk customers, or 12 months for those willing to take more risk.
Once you realize you can't grow, have no high retaining users, or the economics of the business don't make sense, you need to move on.
Start with a growth plan and if you're executing on your product and not seeing growth after 3-4 weeks, consider a pivot.
Wait two to three weeks and keep working hard to eventually see a trend over time, despite the switchover cost.
To get people to switch to your product, find moments where it is much better or very much differentiated from the existing solution.
It is difficult to convince users to switch to a new product, even if it offers many small benefits, so focus on one or two key features that make it stand out.
This is a summary of a YouTube video "Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing with Adora Cheung (How to Start a Startup 2014: 4)" by Y Combinator!
4.8 (62 votes)
Read more summaries on Entrepreneurship and Startups topic