Product
About this category
Content about building, testing, and iterating on a product or service offering. The primary focus is the *thing being built* — what it is, how to test it, and how to improve it based on what you learn.
Showing 318 articles for Product.
Customer discovery
Podcast
How to use customer interviews to build better products
Startups For the Rest of Us
January 18, 2022
Customer discovery
9
Iteration & feedback loops
6
Feature requests are a built-in interview opportunity — no recruiting needed.
Customers express problems as solutions; your job is finding what's beneath.
Empathy is a learnable skill, not a personality trait — anxiety is normal.
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
How to pre-sell, scope, and staff an early-stage product
Dan Martell
January 3, 2022
MVP & prototyping
9
Business models
7
Bootstrapping
6
Get customers to pay you to build the product before raising capital.
Feedback from non-early-adopters actively misleads your product decisions.
Agency developers' incentives misalign with yours — build in-house early.
Customer discovery
Podcast
Finding the right problem to solve using jobs to be done
Startups For the Rest of Us
November 23, 2021
Customer discovery
9
Market research
6
Understand the market's problem before building anything.
Jobs stay stable across technology; describe them without naming tools.
Switch interviews reveal the real job behind a customer's purchase.
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
How to start any business for under $100
Noah Kagan
October 6, 2021
MVP & prototyping
9
Customer discovery
8
Business models
6
Validate demand manually before writing a single line of code
Target massive universal markets: sleep, food, clothing, entertainment
Get three paying customers first — then figure out how to make the product
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
Validate your business idea before spending time or money
Noah Kagan
September 28, 2021
MVP & prototyping
9
Customer discovery
7
Pre-sell before you build — a paying customer beats any prototype
Airbnb, Uber, Craigslist all launched with embarrassingly basic products
No customers yet? Scale is not your problem
Customer discovery
Podcast
Growing a Subscription Business with 10,000 Paid Subscribers
Startups For the Rest of Us
August 24, 2021
Customer discovery
9
Pivoting
8
SEO
6
Bootstrap nutrition site survived Google's 90% traffic crush by pivoting to paid subscriptions.
Jobs-to-be-done interviews revealed customers wanted credibility sharing, not just research guides.
Transparency reports and admitting failures built the trust needed to retain subscribers.
Customer discovery
Podcast
Launching on Product Hunt and DIY vs. DFY
Startups For the Rest of Us
August 3, 2021
Customer discovery
8
Growth hacking
7
Business models
6
Study your launch platform, prepare obsessively, then execute with discipline—not luck.
Simplify onboarding friction, gather beta feedback, delay launch until ready to scale.
Add done-for-you service to reduce churn and gain product insights from customer workflows.
MVP & prototyping
Podcast
Why design fundamentals matter for non-designers
Startups For the Rest of Us
April 13, 2021
MVP & prototyping
8
Design thinking
7
Learn basic design to ship faster without hiring expensive contractors.
Reducing clutter is the single most powerful principle for beginners.
Sketch before you code to avoid locking in poor layout decisions.
Customer discovery
Podcast
How to teach your customer what they need to learn
Masters of Scale
April 5, 2021
Customer discovery
9
Branding
7
Pivoting
6
Launch the product customers will trust, not the one they think they want first.
Where you place your product signals everything—meat case beats alternative aisle.
Listen to customer objections even when the science proves them wrong.
Customer discovery
Podcast
Building Product Vision: Balancing Customer Input With Founder Intuition
Startups For the Rest of Us
March 23, 2021
Customer discovery
8
Business models
6
Identity & self-belief
5
Customer feedback reveals needs, not solutions—your vision shapes how you solve them.
Selling your company need not trap you; creative founders always discover what's next.
Life-changing money (100k–250k+) unlocks freedom to take risks and give generously.
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
Six digital product ideas for creators and small businesses
Silicon Valley Girl
March 18, 2021
MVP & prototyping
8
Content marketing
7
Pricing strategy
6
1,000 paying fans beats 1,000,000 passive followers every time.
Workbook collaboration generated $25K on a single launch day.
Over-delivering is the only reliable edge in a crowded market.
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
How to Launch a $30,000 Product in 20 Days
Noah Kagan
March 9, 2021
MVP & prototyping
9
Growth hacking
7
Customer discovery
5
A scoring framework filters ideas by virality, excitement, and ease.
Read negative competitor reviews before writing a single line of code.
Marketing must run in parallel with building, not after launch.
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
Build a landing page MVP to test your business idea before quitting your job
Silicon Valley Girl
February 22, 2021
MVP & prototyping
9
Niche selection
6
Conversion rate optimisation
5
Charge real money on day one — refund if you don't launch
Friends saying yes is not validation; payment is
Narrow your audience before you build anything
Customer discovery
YouTube
Why startups fail: the user conversation problem
Y Combinator
February 8, 2021
Customer discovery
9
Identity & self-belief
6
Startups die because founders build what users never wanted
Polishing code instead of talking to users is a fatal trap
Listen to user symptoms, but you prescribe the solution
Customer discovery
YouTube
How to validate a million-dollar business idea in five steps
Noah Kagan
January 23, 2021
Customer discovery
9
Niche selection
7
MVP & prototyping
6
Validate before building — get a paying customer first.
Reddit and Amazon reveal real demand faster than brainstorming.
TAM over $1M means the idea is worth your time.