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Comment by dvt

16 days ago

This is the best way to build products imo. I'm like this, and I've been accused of being very "vibes-based." However, that's a way more tractable way of shipping stuff instead of "well Jim said he wants X, but Amy said she wants Y" so you end up just kind of half-assing features because you think they might get you users, instead of just being passionately all-in into a very defined product vision (which is a very Jobsian way of doing things).

It's also easier to run a feedback loop. If you implement Y, but Amy doesn't give you $5 a month, what are you going to do? Knock on her door? Users have no idea what they want half the time, anyway.

If you build a product and no one cares, it bruises the ego a bit more, sure, but if you self reflect, you can eek out your own bad assumptions, or bad implementation, or maybe a way to pivot that keeps your product ethos.

6 comments

dvt

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linkregister  16 days ago

In order for this to work, you have to possess good taste. Not everyone has it, and it often does not translate across domains.

  • nerdsniper  16 days ago

    Good taste is an incredibly powerful differentiator in competitive markets like software. Seems like there’s 3-5 decent choices for darn near anything I need, and usually 1 smaller team has the product that stands head and shoulders above the rest.

    • raw_anon_1111  16 days ago

      Unfortunately, good taste doesn’t matter for a successful software product.

      First let’s look at B2B, there the “user is not the buyer”. The buyer doesn’t care about “good taste” they care about a lot of other things.

      (“Where is my SSO support for multiple users, I’m not going to have my IT department worry about tracking down usernames when Bob leaves)

      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919794

      Second, if you have the feature that people need or a service or network effect, they will suffer through a bad app - see every Electron app ever.

      That “smaller team” may not be around in a year and if you are lucky, you’ll get an “Our Amazing Journey” blog post. Does this product export to a format that my design team can import into Figma if this product goes tits up?

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  • alsetmusic  15 days ago

    Does that mean no one should try? I'd rather a tool be built and I don't use it than the tool not exist.