Intro

After 7 years in tech shipping some products with millions of users and other products with none, I think I finally figured out what makes the difference. This guide is my attempt at breaking it down into a no-BS recipe.

People who will find this guide most useful are (1) aspiring builders and (2) serial builders who keep shipping products that don’t stick.

This guide is built on 3 concepts; let’s define them and where my knowledge ends:

• Build — 0 to 1, idea to working product. Following this guide improves your odds of building well, but it's not a guarantee — luck and other things outside your control still matter. Knowing the theory isn't the same as executing it.
• Useful — solves a real problem, people keep coming back for it. Although it lays strong foundation for it, useful isn't the same as profitable — plenty of useful products never become strong businesses. This guide gets you to useful. Turning that into a business is a different guide, one I'm not yet qualified to write.
• Product — a solution. I've mostly built software, but swap "product" for "solution" anywhere in this piece and it holds — this is really a guide to solving problems, not just shipping software.

Lastly, I recommend you read this guide like a map. You know what you’re aiming for, but the journey there is long and difficult. Whenever you feel blocked or lost, look at the map and find the path back to building a useful product.

1. Research and define the pain point

Pain point, friction, obstacle…. they all refer to the same thing here. People have various goals on an everyday basis and in life, and they experience obstacles on their journey towards those goals. The promise of products is to remove obstacles so the journey feels less difficult.

The most foundational question you must ask yourself is: What obstacle / pain point am I trying to remove / solve?

It’s the foundation for everything that comes after. You should be able to easily and clearly trace every future discussion and product feature back to the pain point. Whenever you feel lost or when decisions feel overwhelming and complex, return to this question to make sure you’re still solving the original pain point. I cannot stress enough how being clear and aligned on the pain point makes every future decision smoother.

Use this framework to define it:

“When [insert scenario], I feel [insert negative emotion] because [insert hypothesis]”.

But how do you find a pain point?

I always recommend first time founders to start with a personal pain point because it:

• Increases your odds at identifying a real pain point since it’s likely that other people experience it too.
• Your personal experience will help you relate to and think of good solutions; you’ll be able to use yourself as a target user.
• Increases the odds you’ll stay motivated on this project because solving this problem benefits you directly.