The document discusses building and launching products. It provides three case studies of product failures and analyzes what caused each failure. It then discusses the importance of building product intuition by immersing oneself in the industry and shipping products. It introduces several paradigms for building the right product, such as starting with "no", focusing on the problem, using an "acid test" for new features, and setting goals for each release. The document emphasizes spending time understanding the problem before development and applying lessons to ensure new products solve user needs.

1. HOW TO BUILD
THE RIGHT THING
Notes on building and launching a hundred
products in three years

2. What we're discussing
• Who am I, where I've been, why I'm here
• Three Product Cases and Analysis
• Intuition and Paradigms to follow
• My Takeaways

3. About me
Joshua is a non-Star Wars fan
obsessed with technology,
communication, and sports.

4. Shipped more than 40 digital products in 3 years ranging
from digital marketing products to full-fledged SaaS.
Products Shipped
Key Products:
• All-in-one solution for online
reputation management for SMBs
• Fast, elegant WordPress sites for
SMBs
• A simple, effective, social media
solution for Small Businesses
• The only solution needed to grow
your agency into seven figures
revenue

5. Business Impact
• x3 recurring paying customers
• x2 increase customer LTV
• 250% increase in monthly revenues
• x6 user signups, 65% penetration
• diversified product line
• increased profitability per product
• new business revenue streams

6. But it could have been
much better
35% hit rate should at least be 75%

7. Building the right thing comes first from
knowing what the wrong thing is
And the best source of information is past experience

8. Business Context
The Brand is a multi-million digital marketing outsourcing
service. We help agencies in growing small businesses
worldwide.
Target Market:
• Agencies with 5k to less than 150k worth of
monthly recurring revenue
Solutions Offered:
• Digital marketing products
• Agency Tools

9. Case #1: Small Business CRM (Feature)
Problem:
• Small businesses are not using our white label dashboard
Solution:
• Develop a CRM that will consolidate all the small business'
leads coming from digital marketing
Resources:
• 2 months development time
Goals/Metrics for Success:
• Small Business dashboard usage up to 50% of total
population (from less than 10%) in three to six months
• Contacts created up to 2,000 in three months

10. Case #2: White Label Hosting (Product)
Problem:
• Web development has unpredictable revenue.
Solution:
• Create a hassle-free managed hosting product that
agencies pay monthly and can offer to their clients
Resources:
• 3 months, 2 departments
Goals/Metrics for Success:
• At least $5,000 monthly revenue 3 months after launch
• $20,000 MRR by end of the year

11. Case #3: Diversified Product Portfolio
(Product Strategy)
Problem:
• The entire brand is overly reliant on one Product Category
Solution:
• Expand all other product services outside the main
Category
Resources:
• One year development and iteration
Goals/Metrics for Success:
• Double the company MRR by the end of the year
• 25% of the revenue coming from Non-Flagship products

12. Results
CASE CRM Hosting Diversification
Feature Product Strategy
Goals
50% - 80% of Users
with regular
engagement
$5,000 MRR Double MRR
2,000 leads $20,000 MRR EOY
25% of Revenue
Coming from Non-
Flagship
Results
less than 10%
engaged
$0.00 MRR 150% increase
more than 2,000
contacts created
(invalid)
$0.00 EOY 25% Diversified

13. On hindsight, these failed because they were
the wrong things to build

14. Analyze what could have caused
the failure for each product

15. What helps in building
the right thing

16. Business Impact
• x3 recurring paying customers
• x2 increase customer LTV
• 250% increase in monthly revenues
• x6 user signups, 65% penetration
• diversified product line
• increased profitability per product
• new business revenue streams

17. Product Intuition Paradigms

18. Product Intuition
"Accumulation of experience
reading about, using, working
with, and/or developing products
and technologies and the ability
to connect ideas and recall
experiences and apply them to
discern a problem and come up
with a solution"

19. Product Intuition • Built through experience
• Not limited to one domain
• Fallible
Intuitive Judgment

20. Product Intuition Allows you to easily figure out which
among product features, requests,
and ideas you need to say no to.

21. Building Product Intuition
• Immerse in industry news
• Know your business, product, and company
• Live the product and company vision
• Use Products and reverse engineer the
decisions made in the product
• Ship Products

22. Paradigms
"Models or mindsets built or
shared by successful
companies/teams in building the
right product."

23. Paradigms To Start With
• Start with the No
• Spend more time with the problem
• Use the Acid Test
• Start with a Cupcake
• Set Goals for each Release

24. Start With No
"Each time you say yes to a feature, you’re adopting a child. You have to
take your baby through a whole chain of events (e.g. design,
implementation, testing, etc.). And once that feature’s out there, you’re
stuck with it. Just try to take a released feature away from customers and
see how pissed off they get."
Getting Real
DHH, Jason Fried

25. Focus on the Problem
"[ Your ] solution can only be as good as your understanding of the problem you’re addressing."
Patrick Adams
Intercom Blog

26. Use the Acid Test
Simple set of Yes/No questions that
you can quickly answer before you
add another item to your product
roadmap.

27. Start with a Cupcake
Build a version of your product that is the cupcake, and not the wedding cake.

28. Set Goals from the Start
• Products do jobs. Goals are a
measure on how effective the
products are in doing the job.
• Set goals before development.
• If Product is directly revenue-
impacting, set revenue goals

29. You know it's the right thing
when it's moving the needle
you want to move, consistently

30. Applying the acid test

31. 1. Does it fit your vision?
2. Will it still matter in 5 years?
3. Will everyone benefit from it?
4. Will it improve, complement, or
innovate the existing workflow?
5. Does it grow the business?
6. Will it generate new and meaningful
engagement?
7. If it succeeds, can we support and
afford it?
8. Can we design it so the reward is
greater than the effort?
9. Can we do it well?
10. Can we scope it well?
Applying the Acid Test

32. What I learned from all of this
and how it was applied

33. Spend the most time on the problem, the
user, and the scoping. Its impact is
exponential to development.

34. Products live and breathe and should be killed
when needed.

35. Building the right thing is only the beginning.
Your users need to know it too.

36. Case #4: Creating a SaaS Product to Help
Agencies
Problem:
• New agencies do not know how to find leads, nurture leads,
or close them.
Solution:
• An all-in-one solution to find leads, nurture, and close leads
effortlessly.
Resources:
• Four months
Goals/Metrics for Success:
• 30 agencies subscribed by end of January
• 50 agencies as of today

37. Questions and Answers