10 Fundamentals of Startup Product Building
Anyone can build a software product, but not everyone can build a successful one. Underestimating the process can be deadly, but it is unfortunately all too common. Think of the countless hours of wasted effort expended by people who fail to learn how to swim before they jump into the software development pool. Those people might eventually learn through trial and error, however, wouldn’t it be great if you could skip that process and gain the knowledge you need to be successful right out of the gate? If you are looking to break into the competitive world of digital entrepreneurship, or if you simply have a compelling idea for an app that you think would be useful, be sure to read through this collection of 10 essential guidelines to avoid wasting your first shot at success.
1. Be the Master of your Domain
Building a startup that delivers concrete via quadcopter when you’ve been a tax accountant for 20 years is, well — you get the point. Mastery isn’t measured in hours, it’s measured in real-world experience. When you create a software product, you need to be intimately familiar with the problems, rules, economics, and personas you will encounter. So, be sure to explore an area that represents the perfect amalgamation of interest and expertise.

2. Size Doesn’t Matter
The right path isn’t always the sexiest or the most sensational. Sometimes, you have to force yourself to think smaller. Product Hunt has an amazing array of game-changing micro-products, and launching a product there can be an extremely complex, but rewarding, process. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t ever go after the big fish, just that maybe you should try to catch a few perch first. Micro-products could be the springboard to a deeper understanding of the startup game, and being successful at that level makes tackling the larger issues much easier in the future.
3. Define Your Approach: Invention vs. Improvement
Finding something truly novel requires a great deal of creativity. There are millions of people in the world trying to solve the next big problem, who will ultimately fail. The truth is that problems of scale require solutions of scale, and that can easily break a first startup before it even gets going. Creative improvement on an existing idea represents the best way to learn how to run a business while being able to emulate a successful competitor’s marketing strategy. It’s faster, cheaper, and because of its lack of novelty, it’s much easier to get off the ground.

4. Design EVERYTHING
My background with companies like InVision and Intuit should make my bias toward design obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less important. The modern product template of designing everything first, and then getting it in front of customers as fast as possible exists for a reason. This practice has made the creation process more efficient than even three years ago, and it allows your designers to build better experiences that are tailor-made for your specific users while worrying about the technical side later.

5. Design EVERYTHING — AGAIN
Contrary to popular product folklore, educated assumptions are the ONLY starting point.
You wouldn’t force a child use a circular saw, so why make would you make users wade through useless functionality? Start at the most bare-bones state you can, and let users dictate what’s missing or necessary, and how to improve.
Wait, you say, Apple has nothing but design-focused products, and Steve Jobs and his design gurus never let users decide what to include. Sorry, but that is a huge misconception. What Steve Jobs knew is that a product might have fundamental requirements for success, but that didn’t preclude extensive consumer feedback to fill in the gaps and smooth out the details. Find the deeper reason behind your users’ feedback, and you can work on implementing a more elegant solution that meets their needs, but maybe not necessarily their want.
6. Don’t Show Me The Money (Yet)
Be careful with your financing. You don’t want to borrow money until you absolutely must, and even then it should only be enough to hit your milestones. Limiting your investors allows you to operate at peak creativity and autonomy. You will be more inventive, driven, and, most importantly, independent. The minute you take on an extra investor, the less you truly own your idea. Speaking from experience, getting too much money too fast will ultimately decimate your motivation, culture and slow down progress.

7. Fail As Fast As You Can
If you have a strong team, you can build several products and test them quickly. If you focus only on one project, you are needlessly putting all your chickens into one basket. With multiple ideas on the docket, you’ll learn about the process more rapidly, and you’ll increase your chances of landing on that one idea that will shoot into the stratosphere.
8. Keep Polishing
Okay, you’re finally here. You have a usable product that scores relatively well with users and you want to hire a growth hacker to help build your go-to-market strategy. One word of advice: don’t. Even when you think your product experience is ready, that it can’t possibly get much better, keep working on it. Be patient. Continue iterating until your user feedback is near-perfect. Trust the process and you will be rewarded with a more complete user experience that will pay dividends in product adoption and user retention.
9. Quality Above All Else
Expectations have changed. Software must work every time. It can’t be buggy or feel slow and clunky because you didn’t optimize your API payload delivery. Your prospective customers care about outcomes, and the problem they want solved; they don’t have time for distraction when they’re just trying to figure out if your product solves their problem. The moment the experience sucks is the moment you lose them for good. Forget that, and you become vaporware.

10. Shut Up, Listen, and Be Humble.
Having a startup does not make you special. More than likely, what you’re building isn’t novel, and if it is, it will probably fail (see #3). Realizing this now will help you to work harder, think deeper, and generally be a better person with which to collaborate. After all, product creation is ultimately a team effort. The original idea may be yours, but it will take a veritable army of designers, creatives, engineers, and users to make it a reality. Empathy is the key to the creation of a successful product. You must be able to think outside of yourself and your personal success in order to deliver something truly extraordinary.
