Building the Product

How do I stop myself from adding features nobody asked for just because I enjoy building?

A starting point

Building is a genuine addiction for technical founders, and it feels like progress while quietly avoiding the harder work of getting users. As a starting point: make yourself write down who asked for a feature and what happens if you do not build it before you start, and if the honest answer is 'nobody' and 'nothing', close the editor and go talk to a customer instead. A useful rule: you should feel slightly bored by how few things you are building.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 2 link-checked Watch Read

Watch

▶️ Video
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it Michael Seibel names the exact trap directly: founders who act like an artist getting the thing in their head into the world, rather than a business owner serving what customers actually want. His blunt line, launch something bad quickly, is the counter-habit to endless building. It is a short, high-signal warning against over-building before you have proof anyone wants it.

Building Product

On Y Combinator (YouTube) by Michael Seibel About 25 minutes

Building Product
  • The idea in your head may be something customers do not want at all, so ship early and let real usage correct you.
  • Trying to make everything scalable and perfect before launch is a classic way to build features nobody asked for.
  • If you take one thing away: launch something bad quickly, then learn from real users instead of adding more.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →

Read

📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Intermediate

Why we picked it This is the book that gives you a discipline for the problem: build only to test a specific hypothesis, then measure and learn before you build more. Ries calls the unit of progress validated learning, which is a direct rebuke to shipping features because they were fun to make. It turns building into a series of small experiments with a clear question attached to each one.

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

From Crown Business by Eric Ries About 336 pages

  • Progress is measured by validated learning, not by lines of code or features shipped, so every build should be answering a real question.
  • The build, measure, learn loop keeps you from adding anything you cannot tie back to a hypothesis about your customer.
  • A minimum viable product exists to test an assumption fast, which is the opposite of gold plating something before anyone has used it.
Open amazon.com →
✍️ Essay
Free Beginner

Why we picked it The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few customers. The cheapest, most honest way to validate demand is to go get it one person at a time.

Do Things That Don't Scale

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham ~15 min read

  • Recruit your first users manually, don't wait for them to come.
  • A tiny group of users who love you beats a big group who like you.
  • Manual, unscalable effort early is a feature, not a failure.
Open paulgraham.com →

People also ask

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