Build the Right Thing

Paul Murston

• have idea
• build it
• put it online, market it
• wait for sales, users ...
• give up (?)

All guesswork based on assumptions

Pain

• invest time, money ideas
• pour heart and passion in
• then fail!

Dream

• happy users/customers, love it

“Not worth it unless you have users/customers”

Happy User Factory

• find where they hang out
• what they say, what they do, what they make, what they use
• what job are they trying to do? what pain do they have? what gains do they hope for?

Kill Pain or Accelerate Gain

Turn our users into badasses!

problem hypothesis solution hypothesis - how does project make it better

can I fake it before I build it? can I demonstrate the gain before building it? if I have to build it, what is the smallest thing I can do to get traction?

Scenarios. Use cases. What is the central thing that delivers value rapidly prototype

NOT about UX, scaling, security, pythonic cool IS about being useful

Tech stack Product katas Practice many times Prune your stack - optimise for expressiveness and productivity Especially productivity - cookiecutters, scaffolding, “production capability” Don’t do everything - deliver key value, then build out

Get people whose problem you attempting to solve to have skin in the game eg classically money - but also reputation, time once they’re committed, they’ll be honest with you (before they’ll just be nice)

use available resources - mgt science “effectivity” - what resources, USP do you have 100% new market - almost bound to fail changing 20-40% - you have solid blocks to build on

steal ideas - from other domains

“A series of experiments are worth more than a good idea”

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week” General Patton - there are always excuses for not going now

Many decisions are reversible - make those quickly

tempo is your killer feature (if you are small startup/one person)

get deployed quickly no excuses start the conversation