Advice 5. Users you don’t want (3 kinds)
A summary of 3 key takeaways from the article “Users you don’t want” by Paul Graham from YC’s Essential Startup Advice.
Main post: 11 advices from YC — Condensed
If you let any user that walks in the door steer the product roadmap you’re going to end up doing a shitty job at half-solving a lot of problems.
Focus on getting only the users you want.
These are the Users you don’t want:
1. Hijacker Users
They will try to hijack your product to solve problems you never intended to solve. They may cause unintended problems and distract you from your intended product vision.
2. “Problematic” Users
Their needs present an entirely new set of problems that you may not be equipped to solve. These users can lead you down the path of solving too many problems without properly addressing any of them.
3. Changing-Economy Users
Are the economics of your business different or broken if you serve this user or others like them? Maybe they are a big deal $$ if you pivot a little… Maybe they will take up resources without contributing to your vision.
These 3 apply also to investors.
What to do?
- Say no politely. Be courteous with users you can’t serve, but politely inform them that your focus lies in solving other problems.
- Stick to your vision. It’s important to stay true to your product vision and not feel obligated to pivot just because of one customer’s needs. Focus on a specific problem to find product/market fit.
- Talk with your co-founders and decide the path to take.
- Listen. Always. Even though you will encounter users you don’t want, they may be telling you where a bigger problem is. Always stay open minded to … (I’ll say it:) pivot!
Bet on making a small number of people VERY happy by focusing on solving a specific problem to build a stronger business.
