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Kevin Lu

Start-Up lessons learned: FOCUS

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It is so important to be FOCUS at the early stage: focusing on both product and users only! Make sure we are developing something that people really want and make "100 users who love us instead of making 10,000 of them kind of like us". How about you? What's your take?

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Ben Bellerose
Are you saying to use the amazon model of customer obsession?
Kevin Lu
@ben_bellerose sorry, I don't quite know about the Amazon model of customer obsession, but I will look into it! Or, do you have any insights regarding the Amazon model?
Ben Bellerose
@dot_brand I first read about it in the book "The Everything Store". Basically, the idea is just really focused on giving the customer the best experience. Amazon is obsessed with how they do that. This is why they invented one-click shopping and things like their new personless store. They want to make the product as frictionless for customers as possible.
Kevin Lu
@ben_bellerose Wow! Thanks for the sharing! It's truly inspiring! Removing any onboarding friction is very important to SaaS products!
Marilena Nikou
I completely agree with you!
Kevin Lu
@marilena_n Thanks, Marilena! While we have to say no in order to stay focused; what is the hardest thing for you to say no?
Marilena Nikou
@dot_brand It is always hard to say no when upper management asks you to try things you might disagree with!
Kevin Lu
@marilena_n Indeed! Ex: when upper management thinks it's time to GROW but we think it's time to slow down because of the retention problems~
André J
Deep-focus > Focus
Kevin Lu
@sentry_co I am intrigued to know, is there any method you use to be in deep-focused easier?
André J
@dot_brand For me: Deep-focus is strongest after breakfast. Calm surroundings. Dimmed coloured lights. Coffee. Sofa + laptop. So I do my deep-focus tasks in this period.
Dennis Zax
100% correct, learned that lesson a bit late -- I fell in love with the development of the product and spent a lot of time developing functionality that we ended up scraping because no one actually needed it. However, learned so much from development and business standpoints from the failed experience so can't really call it a failure :)
Kevin Lu
@deds3t As long as we learn from our previous lessons, we are taking one more step to be successful! Is there anything you are working on right at the moment?
Dennis Zax
@dot_brand Yes, working on ezML now, a platform for quick computer vision integration into apps. So lmk if you ever need any computer vision :). How about you?
Kevin Lu
@deds3t Sure! I would let you know if I need computer vision! I am working on building an AI-powered survey system that provides design strategy and suggestions to designers! Welcome to check it out here: https://dotbrand.design
James Rodriguez
Thanks for sharing this link—it looks like an interesting discussion on Product Hunt about start-up lessons learned and the importance of focus. I'll definitely check it out and see what valuable insights I can gain from it. Keep the positive vibes coming! 😄
Kevin Lu
@jrodriguez__29 Thanks, James! I have to be honest, I don't even think I am focused enough until today~ Learning to say no all the time!
Jacob Butler
I wholeheartedly concur that failure is likely if you are not focused.
Sandra Djajic
Ohhhhh yes!!! Focus and the ability to say no to a lot of things.
Kevin Lu
@sandradjajic You are so right, Sandra! It's so hard to say no sometimes especially when the requests are from our investors~
Ken Lian
The fox knows many tricks and the hedgehog knows only one big thing.
Amel Mechalikh
Totally agree on that, at Ween.ai we sometimes loosed our focus trying to chaise different things at a time and that was a mistake. The only way to achieve something at early stage is to build a conviction on what creates most value to customers (through customer research) and focus on building it one thing at a time !
Kevin Lu
@mechalikh_amel Truly! Even just getting to know what do users really want is SO HARD because people often don't know what they really want~ XD Have you guys encountered the same problem?
Raymond Allen
Thanks for sharing the link, I'm excited to dive into these start-up lessons learned. 😄👍