Build the product

Ship an MVP, work with builders, and iterate toward something people use.

What founders use for build the product, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

  1. Cohen names the perfectionist's core bug: maximizing every decision when good enough would do. He gives you a rule for when to... A Smart Bear Essay · 12 min read Satisficing vs Maximizing Jason Cohen
  2. Your short answer says polishing is often fear of the market's verdict, and this is the book about exactly that fear, which... stevenpressfield.com Book · 190 pages The War of Art Steven Pressfield
  3. If you read one chapter, this is the core argument: doing less is a feature, not a compromise. It helps you strip your MVP down... Basecamp (37signals) Article Getting Real: Build Less Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
  4. Twitter Lite is roughly 600KB over the wire versus a 23.5MB native install, and it grew engagement in emerging markets on flaky... web.dev (Google) Article Twitter Lite increases engagement and reduces data usage web.dev (Google)
  5. A concise checklist for making a web app feel native: cross browser, offline capable, responsive, and fast. Use it to judge... web.dev (Google) Article What makes a good Progressive Web App? web.dev (Google)
  6. The neutral, vendor free reference on what a PWA is and can do, from the people who document the web. It helps you separate... MDN Web Docs (Mozilla) Article Progressive Web Apps (overview) MDN Web Docs (Mozilla)
  7. The concrete how to for giving your web app a home screen icon without the app store, which removes most of the install... MDN Web Docs (Mozilla) Article Making PWAs installable MDN Web Docs (Mozilla)
  8. Hard numbers on how much users resent being forced to install an app for something a web page could do. It quantifies the... Forbes Article 91% Of Us Hate Being Forced To Install Apps To Do Business John Koetsier
  9. Chen lays out the clearest early signal that people actually value your product: do cohorts keep coming back over time. He... andrewchen.com Essay · Medium read How to measure if users love your product using cohorts and revisit rates Andrew Chen
  10. A short, opinionated guide to tracking the events that actually matter, your growth events like signup, activation, and... PostHog Docs Article · Short read Product analytics best practices PostHog Docs
  11. A hands on walkthrough of capturing events, from autocapture to naming custom events for the moments you care about. It is... PostHog Tutorials Article · Medium read Complete guide to event tracking PostHog Tutorials
  12. A tracking plan is the single document that keeps your analytics from rotting into noise. This guide shows how to define events... Amplitude Blog Article · Long read How to create a tracking plan Amplitude Blog
  13. If you only read one piece on this question, make it this one. Caudill studies six real cases (Netscape, Basecamp, VS Code,... herbcaudill.com Essay · 25 min read Rewrite, refactor, or reinvent? Lessons from 6 software rewrite stories Herb Caudill
  14. A short, blunt warning from the creator of Rails. DHH argues that rewriting a working application from scratch in one big bang... dhh.dk Article · 5 min read Thinking about The Big Rewrite? David Heinemeier Hansson
  15. This is the source of the second-system effect, the exact failure mode in your question. Brooks describes how the second system... Addison-Wesley (Fred Brooks) Book · 336 pages The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
  16. 37signals argues for building less software and starting from the core of the product rather than the frame. That philosophy... 37signals (Getting Real) Article · 6 min read Getting Real: Epicenter Design 37signals
  17. A two minute read that reframes the whole copying question. Sivers puts numbers on it: a brilliant idea with no execution is... Derek Sivers (sive.rs) Essay · ~3 min read Ideas are just a multiplier of execution Derek Sivers
  18. This is the open-source-as-growth playbook told by a founder who lived it, aimed at products where developers are the users.... PostHog Article · ~15 min read How we got our first 1,000 users James Hawkins
  19. If you're seriously weighing open-sourcing your MVP, this lays out what that path actually demands. It walks through... Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Article · ~20 min read Open Source: From Community to Commercialization Peter Levine, Jennifer Li
  20. Nadh is the CTO of Zerodha and maintainer of widely used open-source projects like listmonk, so he speaks from years of running... Kailash Nadh (nadh.in) Essay · ~10 min read "Open source" is not broken Kailash Nadh
  21. A clear primer on the types of moats so you can honestly assess how defensible your edge is, which is the final weigh-in your... CRV Article · ~12 min read What Is a Moat? The Startup Guide to Building Competitive Advantage CRV
  22. A useful counterweight that takes the copycat risk seriously in the AI era, when cloning a visible product is faster than ever.... The VC Corner Article · ~10 min read Building in Public Is Not What It Used To Be The VC Corner
  23. A detailed teardown of how one company turned open source into a growth and trust engine rather than a giveaway to rivals. It... How They Grow Article · ~20 min read How PostHog Grows: The Power of Being Open-Core Jaryd Hermann
  24. A single average retention number hides whether you have a small core of people who love the product, which is the seed you... Andrew Chen Essay · 12 min read The Power User Curve Andrew Chen

Show the next 24

The questions

Building your MVP 18

Build the smallest thing that tests the biggest risk.

What actually counts as an MVP, and what's the smallest one I can get away with? 20 → How do I decide which features to cut from v1? 18 → How long should building an MVP take? 19 → Should I build an MVP at all, or can I validate without one? 20 → How do I get my first users for the MVP? 17 → All 18 questions in Building your MVP →
No-code & low-code building 18

Ship a product without writing code.

Which no-code tool should I use to build my first product? 20 → Can I really build a serious business on no-code, or will I hit a wall? 18 → Should I use an AI app builder like Lovable or Replit instead of traditional no-code? 20 → How do I connect payments and handle data if I'm building no-code in India? 20 → What can I build with just a spreadsheet as the backend? 20 → All 18 questions in No-code & low-code building →
Finding & working with developers 18

Get it built when you can't build it yourself.

I'm non-technical, do I actually need a technical co-founder? 18 → How do I actually find a technical co-founder? 19 → Should I hire an agency or a freelancer to build my MVP? 17 → How do I hire good engineers in India when everyone's competing for the same talent? 18 → How do I evaluate a developer's skill if I can't code? 19 → All 18 questions in Finding & working with developers →
Product design & UX basics 18

Make it obvious, not clever.

I'm not a designer, how do I make my product not look terrible? 18 → What are the core UX principles every founder should know? 20 → How do I know if my product is confusing to users? 17 → Should I learn Figma, and how much design do I really need? 19 → Why does good design actually matter for an early-stage startup? 19 → All 18 questions in Product design & UX basics →
Shipping, iterating & roadmap 18

Ship weekly, learn constantly, prioritise ruthlessly.

How do I decide what to build next? 19 → How often should an early-stage startup ship? 19 → How do I build a roadmap without over-planning? 19 → How do I keep talking to users while I'm heads-down building? 18 → How do product teams keep a consistent shipping rhythm as they grow? 18 → All 18 questions in Shipping, iterating & roadmap →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →