4 ms·

I read this, and all through the article I kept waiting for the part where the author would talk about his own experience using his own product. What I'm getti

I read this, and all through the article I kept waiting for the part where the author would talk about his own experience using his own product. What I'm getting at is that, its really difficult to get people to love something you build unless you love it yourself, Seth Godin touches on this in his book "This is Marketing" I like the data driven approach to product development, but sometimes passion trumps data, if you build something you yourself cannot live without, it's much easier to slowly win people over to your way of thinking. And if you say to me "well he was the only one working on it", then my answer to you is like that punchline in the Famous "Coming to America" skit ... "aha!" It is infinitely better to work on problems that you have a firsthand understanding of/experience with otherwise you're always going to be depending on others for product insight, which is not terrible, but much much harder than when those insights come from you directly.

ekanes 7y ago
> then my answer to you is like that punchline in the Famous "Coming to America" skit ... Don't find it but it sounds fun! Got a link?
- trustfundbaby 7y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKsSvR5u-qk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKsSvR5u-qk
  - ackbar03 7y ago
    That's actually really good
RaceWon 7y ago
> What I'm getting at is that, its really difficult to get people to love something you build unless you love it yourself This reminded me of a quote which is totally the opposite, and imo more accurate: "Most entrepreneurs fall in love with the wrong thing. They fall in love with their products and their business when they should be falling in love with their clients and customers" -Jay Abraham Both sentiments are however; worthy food for thought.
- mritchie712 7y ago
  Best case scenario: you are the customer. In this case, both sentiments can be true.
  - travisjungroth 7y ago
    Turns out that the real productivity hack was learning to love yourself.
- sudhirj 7y ago
  There’s a superb YC video that rephrased this correctly for me - be in love with the problem, not your current draft of a solution. Certainly not your first draft. https://youtu.be/vDXkpJw16os https://youtu.be/vDXkpJw16os But you do need love. I had a similar experience with https://whatsgoingon.in https://whatsgoingon.in - I fell in love with my own live blogging product, but I don’t have the problem of actually needing a live blog for anything in my life. That craters motivation pretty quickly.
wpietri 7y ago
I think a great example of the eat-your-cooking thinking is Slack itself. It started out as an in-house tool at Butterfield's now-defunct game company Glitch: https://readwrite.com/2013/08/14/stewart-butterfield-tiny-speck-slack/ https://readwrite.com/2013/08/14/stewart-butterfield-tiny-sp...
hyperpallium 7y ago
> problems that you have a firsthand understanding of/experience of This is also data driven. It may be mere "datum", but complex, with many components, far richer than any statistical data.
ehnto 7y ago
I found that I am passionate about my skillset but not the industry as a whole. So my industry experience doesn't lend itself to spotting problems I can care about. Passion has never really affected my ability to deliver once I spotted a problem I thought I could solve, but I would be lying if I said I hadn't quit early on a few projects because I just didn't care if they failed. Sometimes I wish I were more ruthlessly in love with money to use that as a driver, but I'm not. So I have been trying out developing cycling products. My skillset still applies, bootstrapping an online business and all the technology involved with it. Except now the purpose is delivering a product I care a bit more about. I am finding it far easier to stay motivated for this project. If only because I actually want to use it myself once it is done.
- downtide 7y ago
  I'm exactly like that, if I feel the product has value, I can get behind it. I'm a good salesman for a 'good product'. The flip side is that I have worked on many a drab project and site, that could have been improved with a little technical finesse, and simple UI overhaul, but there hasn't been the wherewithall from others. Hence perhaps an initially loved or cared for project has slowly declined. I've also been at a startup, after many of the developers took the money and then departed. On a site that two founders had poured all their money into. People hadn't even the courage to tell them to quit, or throw out some un-needed features. That's almost heart breaking, but you do understand when those people have invested so much. I'm talking about remortagaging houses on a punt, to a pay a developer for a middle of the road product. I've poured months of time into projects that have gone absolutely nowhere also for one reason or another. Not personal projects I might add. I have lost time and not been paid either. But by comparisson with the above have just taken it on the chin.
downtide 7y ago
I get that, but the more intimate you are with a product, it's also hard to see the warts, especially when it comes to usability. I remember using ebay for the first time, and absolutely loathing the experience. I had to get used to the product. And there is much friction. Transparant simple UI is very hard. I am always noticing troublesome UI areas, and usually when mentioned, I get the response: oh that's just the way it is. Luckily you later forget those initial irritations. Anyway, just saying however critical you are, you are likely not the best person to reveal insights into your own product.

ekanes 7y ago

> then my answer to you is like that punchline in the Famous "Coming to America" skit ... Don't find it but it sounds fun! Got a link?

trustfundbaby 7y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKsSvR5u-qk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKsSvR5u-qk
- ackbar03 7y ago
  That's actually really good

RaceWon 7y ago

> What I'm getting at is that, its really difficult to get people to love something you build unless you love it yourself This reminded me of a quote which is totally the opposite, and imo more accurate: "Most entrepreneurs fall in love with the wrong thing. They fall in love with their products and their business when they should be falling in love with their clients and customers" -Jay Abraham Both sentiments are however; worthy food for thought.

mritchie712 7y ago
Best case scenario: you are the customer. In this case, both sentiments can be true.
- travisjungroth 7y ago
  Turns out that the real productivity hack was learning to love yourself.
sudhirj 7y ago
There’s a superb YC video that rephrased this correctly for me - be in love with the problem, not your current draft of a solution. Certainly not your first draft. https://youtu.be/vDXkpJw16os https://youtu.be/vDXkpJw16os But you do need love. I had a similar experience with https://whatsgoingon.in https://whatsgoingon.in - I fell in love with my own live blogging product, but I don’t have the problem of actually needing a live blog for anything in my life. That craters motivation pretty quickly.

wpietri 7y ago

I think a great example of the eat-your-cooking thinking is Slack itself. It started out as an in-house tool at Butterfield's now-defunct game company Glitch: https://readwrite.com/2013/08/14/stewart-butterfield-tiny-speck-slack/ https://readwrite.com/2013/08/14/stewart-butterfield-tiny-sp...

hyperpallium 7y ago

> problems that you have a firsthand understanding of/experience of This is also data driven. It may be mere "datum", but complex, with many components, far richer than any statistical data.

ehnto 7y ago

I found that I am passionate about my skillset but not the industry as a whole. So my industry experience doesn't lend itself to spotting problems I can care about. Passion has never really affected my ability to deliver once I spotted a problem I thought I could solve, but I would be lying if I said I hadn't quit early on a few projects because I just didn't care if they failed. Sometimes I wish I were more ruthlessly in love with money to use that as a driver, but I'm not. So I have been trying out developing cycling products. My skillset still applies, bootstrapping an online business and all the technology involved with it. Except now the purpose is delivering a product I care a bit more about. I am finding it far easier to stay motivated for this project. If only because I actually want to use it myself once it is done.

downtide 7y ago
I'm exactly like that, if I feel the product has value, I can get behind it. I'm a good salesman for a 'good product'. The flip side is that I have worked on many a drab project and site, that could have been improved with a little technical finesse, and simple UI overhaul, but there hasn't been the wherewithall from others. Hence perhaps an initially loved or cared for project has slowly declined. I've also been at a startup, after many of the developers took the money and then departed. On a site that two founders had poured all their money into. People hadn't even the courage to tell them to quit, or throw out some un-needed features. That's almost heart breaking, but you do understand when those people have invested so much. I'm talking about remortagaging houses on a punt, to a pay a developer for a middle of the road product. I've poured months of time into projects that have gone absolutely nowhere also for one reason or another. Not personal projects I might add. I have lost time and not been paid either. But by comparisson with the above have just taken it on the chin.

downtide 7y ago

I get that, but the more intimate you are with a product, it's also hard to see the warts, especially when it comes to usability. I remember using ebay for the first time, and absolutely loathing the experience. I had to get used to the product. And there is much friction. Transparant simple UI is very hard. I am always noticing troublesome UI areas, and usually when mentioned, I get the response: oh that's just the way it is. Luckily you later forget those initial irritations. Anyway, just saying however critical you are, you are likely not the best person to reveal insights into your own product.