A post mortem on YourStack
Ryan Hoover
7 replies
In 2019 we built a new project called YourStack.
Product Hunt is primarily about what’s new, a firehose of the latest tech launches. YourStack was all about the products you use and love.
Our goal was to expand beyond tech, to help people discover and buy products recommended by people respect and trust.
But it failed.
Occasionally I’m asked why, so I wrote a post mortem.
The TL;DR:
1. Product discovery isn’t a daily or even weekly activity. This made it incredibly difficult to build a habit and drive meaningful engagement.
The Product Hunt flywheel
2. It was too broad. We should have narrowed focus to build the best experience for a particular type of person and use case.
3. We should have built mobile-first. Building for the web has many advantages but mobile is where consumers live.
4. We overbuilt. I’ll take responsibility for this. I got too clever and should have pushed the team to launch something simple, faster.
5. I burned out. This deserves its own essay. :)
Here's an expanded version of the story on our learnings and opportunity in product discovery space.
For those of you that signed up for YourStack, would love to hear your take in the comments. :)
The Product Hunt flywheel
2. It was too broad. We should have narrowed focus to build the best experience for a particular type of person and use case.
3. We should have built mobile-first. Building for the web has many advantages but mobile is where consumers live.
4. We overbuilt. I’ll take responsibility for this. I got too clever and should have pushed the team to launch something simple, faster.
5. I burned out. This deserves its own essay. :)
Here's an expanded version of the story on our learnings and opportunity in product discovery space.
For those of you that signed up for YourStack, would love to hear your take in the comments. :)Replies
Marc H. Guirand@deriskdaily
@rrhoover - thanks for sharing! We'll keep these things in mind as we slowly develop the Derisk portfolio.
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I didn't know that your activity was also beyond PH. Interesting.
IMO, the Product Hunt maintains its primacy because it focuses precisely on tech. When I put it this way, tech is the fastest growing environment where everything moves at rocket speed and I don't think any other type of product (or rather industry) moves so fast.
I originally started going to PH because I wanted to keep up with the latest trends in tech (because it's a leap forward) and get access to the latest products on the market before they arrive in my location.
If we were to apply this to other industries outside of tech, such as healthcare, gastro or whatever, none of it moves as fast as tech. So the frequency of posting, supporting those launched, etc. would be less frequent (which could result in less traffic, for example). If I understood the vision of YourStack correctly.
Thank you very much for sharing, very interesting to read.
Could you elaborate a little bit more about point 1 and product discovery? Specifically, what issues did you encounter, and what were your expectations in hindsight? Additionally, what job needed to be done, and what was the desired outcome?
@virtual_patrick first can you please confirm you're not an LLM? ;)
(no offense!)
@virtual_patrick haha, all good. :)
Re: product discovery not being a habit: How often do you buy or use new products (excluding repeat purchases like groceries)? Probably not often. That's a challenge for anyone trying to build recurring engagement, especially when the entire system or flywheel depends on it.
Thanks for sharing this, Ryan. It's always insightful to see the reflections and learnings from YourStack's journey.