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Ask HN: How should one correctly iterate a tech product?
Hi HN,
I run a tech company and I'm feeling a little lost.
We recently launched our product out into the open and began doing qualitative user testing. This was a wonderful revelation as is started to quickly flare up UX issues with the product which we had not seen.
It changed our process from one with lots of tinkering behind closed doors to one where we were throwing up quick versions of the site and immediately testing our thinking against reality. A good change I think!
The question that I'd love some guidance on is the following:
Internally we / I feel a conflict between user acquisition and product development.
I don't know if we should pursue the qualitative testing road more heavily, not just to fix UX issues but to be the main driver for product development, and that that should be our focus right now.
Or if we should also spend our time trying to acquire users to our effectively unfinished product.
What does the YC experience advise? Is it some sort of balance of the two?
Some help would be really useful! Thanks HN.
- gyardley 12y agoI can't speak for the YC experience, but in my opinion acquiring users for a product they won't stick with is like pouring water into a leaky bucket - you need to patch up the bucket first. I don't know the details of your situation, but based on what you've written, I'd first get your product to the point where your users love it and are going to keep using it. (Note that it doesn't have to be 'finished' at this point - just loved. It's possible for users to love a product you consider unfinished!) Then and only then would I ramp up user acquisition efforts.