Article · 5 min read

Ask 37signals: How do you say no?

Jason Fried · Signal v. Noise Free Beginner

A short, practical answer on how to actually decline feature requests and keep the product lean, including their line that you rarely regret saying no but often regret saying yes. It is the everyday habit behind not needing to kill features later. Useful language you can borrow when you turn a request down.

  • You rarely regret a no, you often regret a yes
  • Most requests do not deserve to become features
  • Saying no is how you protect a product you can stand behind

The question it answers

  1. When is it right to stop iterating on a feature and just kill it?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. Michael Seibel's crisp framing of holding the problem and customer tightly while holding the solution loosely, the mindset that... Y Combinator Startup Library Video · ~15 min How to Plan an MVP Michael Seibel
  3. A punchy, contrarian classic on building a lean, sane, profitable company from the founders of Basecamp. It's the antidote to... 37signals Book · ~288 pages Rework Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
  4. Des Traynor makes the case that "no" is the product strategy, and that adding a feature for one loud customer quietly costs... Intercom (Des Traynor) Article · ~8 min read Product Strategy Means Saying No Des Traynor
  5. Doshi names the IKEA effect, how you overvalue what you built simply because you built it, which is the quiet engine behind... Shreyas Doshi (Substack) Essay · 12 min read The Product Builder's True Journey Shreyas Doshi
  6. Zerodha built its products in-house rather than leaning on outside vendors, and Kamath explains how staying close to the build... Inc42 Article · 12 min read Zerodha's Nithin Kamath On The Art Of Building World Class Products Nithin Kamath
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →