Start-Up lessons learned: FOCUS
Kevin Lu
28 replies
It is so important to be FOCUS at the early stage: focusing on both product and users only! Make sure we are developing something that people really want and make "100 users who love us instead of making 10,000 of them kind of like us".
How about you? What's your take?
Replies
André J@sentry_co
Deep-focus > Focus
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dotBRAND
@sentry_co I am intrigued to know, is there any method you use to be in deep-focused easier?
@dot_brand For me: Deep-focus is strongest after breakfast. Calm surroundings. Dimmed coloured lights. Coffee. Sofa + laptop. So I do my deep-focus tasks in this period.
dotBRAND
100% correct, learned that lesson a bit late -- I fell in love with the development of the product and spent a lot of time developing functionality that we ended up scraping because no one actually needed it. However, learned so much from development and business standpoints from the failed experience so can't really call it a failure :)
dotBRAND
@dot_brand Yes, working on ezML now, a platform for quick computer vision integration into apps. So lmk if you ever need any computer vision :). How about you?
dotBRAND
@deds3t
Sure! I would let you know if I need computer vision!
I am working on building an AI-powered survey system that provides design strategy and suggestions to designers!
Welcome to check it out here: https://dotbrand.design
Hunted Space
Ohhhhh yes!!! Focus and the ability to say no to a lot of things.
dotBRAND
@sandradjajic You are so right, Sandra! It's so hard to say no sometimes especially when the requests are from our investors~
Totally agree on that, at Ween.ai we sometimes loosed our focus trying to chaise different things at a time and that was a mistake.
The only way to achieve something at early stage is to build a conviction on what creates most value to customers (through customer research) and focus on building it one thing at a time !
dotBRAND
@mechalikh_amel Truly! Even just getting to know what do users really want is SO HARD because people often don't know what they really want~ XD
Have you guys encountered the same problem?
Xence by Gaspar AI
I completely agree with you!
dotBRAND
@marilena_n Thanks, Marilena! While we have to say no in order to stay focused; what is the hardest thing for you to say no?
Xence by Gaspar AI
@dot_brand It is always hard to say no when upper management asks you to try things you might disagree with!
dotBRAND
@marilena_n Indeed! Ex: when upper management thinks it's time to GROW but we think it's time to slow down because of the retention problems~
Thanks for sharing the link, I'm excited to dive into these start-up lessons learned. 😄👍
dotBRAND
@rayallen32 Thanks! I am still learning as well~ It's never easy to stay focused!
Thanks for sharing this link—it looks like an interesting discussion on Product Hunt about start-up lessons learned and the importance of focus. I'll definitely check it out and see what valuable insights I can gain from it. Keep the positive vibes coming! 😄
dotBRAND
@jrodriguez__29 Thanks, James! I have to be honest, I don't even think I am focused enough until today~ Learning to say no all the time!
I wholeheartedly concur that failure is likely if you are not focused.
dotBRAND
@jacob_butler88 Totally agreeing with you, Jacob! Focus means investment to me!
Are you saying to use the amazon model of customer obsession?
dotBRAND
@ben_bellerose sorry, I don't quite know about the Amazon model of customer obsession, but I will look into it!
Or, do you have any insights regarding the Amazon model?
@dot_brand I first read about it in the book "The Everything Store". Basically, the idea is just really focused on giving the customer the best experience. Amazon is obsessed with how they do that. This is why they invented one-click shopping and things like their new personless store. They want to make the product as frictionless for customers as possible.
dotBRAND
@ben_bellerose Wow! Thanks for the sharing! It's truly inspiring!
Removing any onboarding friction is very important to SaaS products!