Is your product a vitamin or painkiller?
Jeremy Kovac
7 replies
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to share a challenging but honest update I think fellow builders should learn from. I've been working on gSweets for nearly a year now. Having done 20+ user interviews pre-launch we had a sense early on that the project was seen more as a vitamin than a painkiller – that is more of a nice-to-have than a must-have. We were ok with that at the time since we thought it was a fun project and that it could be a foot in the door to building more meaningful features on top of Google Docs.
Given that we were building on top of Google Docs, and that we had a high quality bar for the UX, it took us months to get the core feature ready, and then a few more months to build features on top of it like GIPHY, Unsplash and Emojis.
We launched on PH and within a couple of months had nearly 2K installs in the chrome webstore. We were soon nominated for a Golden Kitty Award for productivity. We were feeling pretty motivated and confident that things were heading in the right direction.
Unfortunately, felt we were missing 2 things, users emails and product analytics. We implemented product analytics and user accounts. We could finally communicate directly with our users and see how useful our product was to them.
After a few weeks of tracking, the data didn't lie. We had a very small group of users who would use gSweets a couple of times a week, but it was safe to say that overwhelmingly – users were not using gSweets. It was hard to accept given how much time was sunk into the project but we couldn't argue with the data. The biggest challenge was that although we have ideas on how to increase the value & frequency of usage, the platform risk of building on top of Google Docs was too high.
One of our teammates summed it up well. Normally you accept product risk OR technical risk. We had accepted both and it bit us in the ass.
We're still extremely motivated to continue improving the lives of the many PMs, Marketers and writers who've trusted us thus far. I just know that as we continue on this journey we're going to be try an follow these rules:
1. If you're not sure if it's a painkiller or a vitamin, launch in less than a month.
2. Either way launch with a paid plan to validate the pain.
3. Accept the technical risk for a painkiller that you've validated. Don't accept it if you know what you're building is really a vitamin.
That's it. If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment below.
I hope this is helpful to other builders out there.
Jer
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Igor Miracle@igor_miracle
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Thanks for this! I'm hoping my product is a painkiller, but like you said, I need to launch to be sure. My product I'm about to launch is www.gypsee.travel
@andrewfashion it looks quite good, but please may I know what problem it solves?
Your Description is quite difficult to understand, I will break it down:
Ok, this is good, but people may be curious to know if this is something like a Spotify for travel:
Gypsee is a travel subscription service meant to make travel simplified for you and friends.
I assume this is a Joke, but it also sounds like a VR solution, that lets users preview their experience. It is confusing.
For the optimum experience, use your eyes.
As the mobile app buttons are displayed this does not need to be stated.
After that, you must use your mobile browser or download from the App Store.
Another Joke I assume, does it actually have a meaning?
Eye drops not included.
I love travel and the concept sounds great, but I assume the subscription will have a steep price tag, to compensate for trips halfway across the world, tier of luxury (Economy, Business, First Class), etc.
@rilwan_owolabi1 Did you by chance check the website on your mobile phone?
Thanks, maybe you lot can check what other problems google doc users have, check on Reddit, I'm sure there are writers/marketers there, that use google docs.
Possibly you can add an AI (GTP-3) system that provides content suggestions similar to the content the user is writing (Quotes, News Headlines, Images downloaded from a news aggregation site, etc), so it takes less effect to write good content.
or
A shortcut that can reformat the page's layout, so others can read it better. e.g. they write extensive content, users use your shortcut popup to rephrase their title, add an executive summary, convert a list of items to bullet points, etc.
From my perspective, one thing I know is, writer just want is to get their point across. if you give them the means to simply do so, it will become a painkiller.
painkiller available over the counter without a prescription. It's one of a group of painkillers called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and can be used to: ease mild to moderate pain – such as toothache, migraine, and period pain.