Michael Seibel - Building Product

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro 00:53 - JustinTV (Twitch now) make a lot of mistakes but the things that allowed them to survive 03:50 - What problem are you solving? 05:31 - Can you state the problem clearly? 05:45 - Have you experienced it yourself? 06:12 - Can you define your problem narrowly? 07:02 - Is the problem solvable? 10:11 - Who is your customer? 10:23 - Everyone? (no!) 11:30 - How often do they have the problem? 13:50 - How intense is the problem? 15:07 - Are they willing to pay? 17:05 - How easy are they to find? 18:39 - Does your MVP actually solve the problem? 21:10 - Which customers should you go after first? (the easy ones!) 24:25 - Which customers should you run away from? (the hard ones!) 25:46 - Should you discount or start with a super low price? (no!) 27:58 - How to setup metrics 28:15 - Google Analytics + Something else 29:36 - Pick 5-10 important stats 31:13 - Make measurements a part of product spec 32:02 - Product Development Cycle (v1) 36:11 - KPI Goal 37:52 - Brainstorm 39:01 - Easy/Medium/Hard 40:50 - Decide 41:35 - Written Spec 43:44 - Pivot vs Iterate 44:43 - Pivot = Changing the customer and/or changing the problem (rare) 44:59 - Iterate = changing the solution (common) 46:09 - Fake Steve Jobs vs Real Steve Jobs (how not to be a product dictator) 48:04 - Summary - Find the right customers, ask specific what they want, and make it. 51:06 - Question 1 - Should you be going free if the final idea for the product is to be free? 52:27 - Question 2 - KPI is revenue and the number is zero, should you still be tracking that as your top line KPI? 53:50 - Question 3 - Hardware company pre-launch pre-sales tips? 54:29 - Question 4 - Hardest part of having a slow burn? 55:26 - Question 5 - Beta to early MVP? 56:51 - Question 6 - How do one figure out what feature to build next? 58:09 - Outro

I'm a products person. And I spent countless hours researching about how to make my process better. And this video has been one of the most brilliantly put together pieces of content on product delivery I've seen.

I've met Micheal during the Startup School Beijing in May 2018. I was impressed by his modesty and humanity. Thanks to his tips, I'm finally managing to achieve product-market fit!

1. Need to first resolve what the pain you’re solving. Can you state the problem plainly in one or two sentences. 2. Is it a problem you’ve experienced yourself? 3. Can you define the problem narrowly, immediately. 4. Is the problem solvable? 5. Who is your customer? You have to focus on an ideal initial loser/early adopter. 6. How often does your user have the problem? Who’s getting the most value? It helps to have a problem that people use frequently. 7. How intense is the problem? 8. Are they willing to pay? Sometimes it’s better to make the product harder to use to see if it’s an intense enough problem or not. Don’t start free. Charge a price and a good price. 9. How easy are your customers to find? 10. Does your MVP solve the problem you designed it to? 11. Which customers should you go after first? Don’t just go after the hardest ones. With MVP, find people desperate enough to use a bad product? (Maybe people at stores already). How do you find people who desperately need your app? Ignore investors of friends to ask these questions. Once you have customers it’s good to identify bad customers who are toxic and have unrealistic expectations. Some exploit in bad faith. 12. Don’t discount unless it’s a way to speed up a sale. 13. Set up metrics. Don’t use Google analytics. It’s important so you know if your products is. Wing used or not. Doesn’t tell you how long people used each item on your page. It’s good to have a highly technical team to use Mix Panel. Pick 5-10 simple stats at the beginning. 14. Make measurement a part of your product spec. Building measurement are a part of your product spec as part of first release. 15. Product development cycle: (v1) A. KPI—Track revenue if you charge customers or usage if not. B. BRAINSTORM—any idea is written in the board. Lots of value in seeing idea in writing. C. Iterate and talk to customers to see what they like to improve your product. C. Do hard first, medium, then hard. D. Written spec—write down what you mean by every step and how it’s gonna work. [email protected]

There are times when you think YC's program is very competitive and overrated, now I know the incredible value that folks like Micheal Siebel add to YC startups. This is absolutely gold!

"You don't understand the problem you're solving, until you understand the person you're solving it for." Michael 10:15 That's powerful!

When I finished watching this I watched it again just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I can think of no higher compliment.

I doubt there is another video on YouTube that is so actionable and helpful for startups in 2018. Thank you!

This is hands down one of if not the best recorded advice for start-ups. So glad I found this. Thanks for making it accessible.

This is one of the best videos for startups in YouTube. Michael knows exactly what he is talking about!

Almost half way through this and have to say this is the most practical lecture I've ever watched on building a product.

Thank you Michael and Y Combinator for this talk. Was so amazing, down to earth, super practical. Greetings from Mexico 🇲🇽

Michael Seibel is one of my favourite so far in YCSS 2018. Thank you

YC is my favorite. I don't know how I never knew about it all along. People pay a lot of money for this information. Thank you very much for this YC.

This is the best talk I have ever listened about product development. Love it

‘This guy has such incredible insight but able to tell his story in such a clear way . Thank you 😊

Thank you, Michael Seibel and Y Combinator. This video has great practical, no-nonsense, and direct insights for Product builders.

This is awesome - what a great talk. Instead of continuing to be baited into arguments about whether or not the problem is the super crucial thing, I can now send people this video. Thank you!

The fact that he’s explaining what to track after you build means that this is all very new!

Fantastic talk; clear, concise, humble, wise. A gift!