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.
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
When to launch a startup: the quantum of utility rule
Y Combinator
July 16, 2019
MVP & prototyping
8
Pivoting
5
Launch the moment one person benefits from your product
Late launches carry risk just as early launches do
Ten people who love it is a perfectly valid launch
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
How to decide what to build next: Michael Seibel's product cycle framework
Y Combinator
July 16, 2019
MVP & prototyping
9
Iteration & feedback loops
7
Fast iteration beats predicting the right thing to build.
Ship MVPs quickly, measure results, keep only what works.
Chasing 'home runs' and perfecting each feature causes spiral of death.
Customer discovery
YouTube
Make Your Product Relevant by Naming the Pain It Solves
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
July 3, 2019
Customer discovery
8
Copywriting
7
Products feel irrelevant when companies lose sight of customer pain.
Map each revenue stream to the specific pain it resolves.
Name the pain in marketing copy; specificity drives purchases.
Product-market fit
Podcast
Superhuman: algorithmic product-market fit and charging $30 for email
Acquired
June 27, 2019
Product-market fit
9
Pricing strategy
7
Pricing psychology
6
40% 'very disappointed' is the measurable threshold that predicts growth
Charging more than free incumbents only works with deliberate premium positioning
Only launch when you actually need users, capital, or candidates
Product-market fit
YouTube
Why your business isn't growing: create a clear first step
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 18, 2019
Product-market fit
9
Business models
8
B2B sales
6
A missing entry point is silently killing your business growth
One simple first step can double revenue in 24 months
Complexity without a clear on-ramp locks your front door
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
Why dev shops are a trap for early-stage tech startups
Y Combinator
April 25, 2019
MVP & prototyping
9
Long-term planning
5
Dev shops cost more and take longer than founders expect
Early investors fund iteration speed, not finished products
A technical co-founder beats a dev shop on every metric
Customer discovery
YouTube
How to get and test startup ideas
Y Combinator
April 4, 2019
Customer discovery
8
MVP & prototyping
8
Niche selection
5
Start with a problem you know personally, not a polished idea.
Your MVP will probably fail — release it fast and stay detached.
Handpick early users; fit matters far more than volume.
Customer discovery
Podcast
How Eventbrite uses customer observation to drive product strategy
Masters of Scale
January 8, 2019
Customer discovery
9
Case study
7
Communication
5
Watch what customers do, not just what they say
Organic user behavior revealed Facebook integration before anyone asked
Small cross-functional sessions unlock insights neither data nor empathy finds alone
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
A practical order of operations for finding and launching a startup idea
Y Combinator
November 28, 2018
MVP & prototyping
8
Customer discovery
7
Niche selection
6
You don't need a great idea first — start with a real personal problem.
Brainstorming with co-founders beats solo ideation every time.
Outsourcing development without a technical co-founder quietly kills startups.
Customer discovery
YouTube
How to identify and remove users who hijack your product
Y Combinator
November 28, 2018
Customer discovery
9
Niche selection
7
Paying hijackers are still worth cutting — revenue isn't the test.
How Twitch emerged from recognising valuable edge-case users at Justin.tv.
Hijackers don't just waste time — they corrupt your product roadmap.
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
Technical founder advice: building teams, tech debt, and shipping fast
Y Combinator
October 10, 2018
MVP & prototyping
9
Hiring & recruitment
6
Processes & SOPs
5
V1 code is throwaway — use the stack you know best
Enterprise customers paying six figures trigger real engineering rigour
Stop coding earlier; hiring compounds faster than writing features yourself
Product-market fit
YouTube
How Front built a shared inbox product and retained its team
Y Combinator
October 3, 2018
Product-market fit
9
Case studies
8
Culture building
7
Score features on impact vs. complexity — nine tiers, always vision-filtered.
500 customers, $1M ARR before a single marketing hire.
Retention comes from mission, hiring bar, and radical transparency — not perks.
Product design fundamentals for non-designer founders
Y Combinator
September 19, 2018
User research
8
MVP & prototyping
7
Design is how something works, not just how it looks
Removing one form field can lift signup conversion by 50%
Customer support is your cheapest source of product intelligence
Iteration & feedback loops
Podcast
How to kill bad ideas and stay true to winning instincts
Masters of Scale
July 25, 2018
Iteration & feedback loops
9
Pivoting
7
Processes & SOPs
6
Your instincts are right 95% of the time; your ideas only 25%.
Zynga tested hundreds of ideas daily before writing a line of code.
Over-investing in data analysts gave Zynga a speed advantage rivals couldn't match.
Customer discovery
YouTube
How KingSumo grew to nearly $1M with minimal effort
Noah Kagan
January 25, 2018
Customer discovery
8
Growth hacking
7
Business models
5
An ugly internal tool earned nearly $1M with zero active marketing
Most buyers never used the product — activation beats acquisition
Score ideas on ease and impact, then run one-week sprints