Preface: Products and Users

"Make something that arranges want."-by Paul Graham

Paul Graham has said that products and users are the only things that the early entrepreneurial team needs to focus on and care about when they enter the Y Combinator incubator, and everything else is secondary in the incubation phase.

1, the Team

Before the product and the user, we have to add a "team". Each selected project to enter the incubator, in the process of screening for the communication with the incubator, the incubator most valued is the team. Specifically, the team's balance and integrity. Balance refers to: PM, development, design, operation, promotion. We accepted an early founder with multiple posts, but did not accept one team. Integrity: Minimum integrity refers to the product capability, that is, development, operation, PM must be guaranteed. We have to make sure that all projects start at the beginning of the incubator and are fully committed to the product without having to spend time looking for PM or CTO.

2, Product

The first stage of the product, the MVP. We recommend that the team develop a prototype for the development team, as well as an angel user, with minimal price/performance. If you want to be earlier, you can use some fool-type build station tools, or some mockup tools to do a demo. Give some potential angel users early and get feedback.

3, users

The first stage of the Angel users, must be around the friends, development team, incubator, as well as a small number of potential users, a few 50 people. For early adopters, the first step is to listen to what they say and understand their needs. The second step is to see how they actually use the product. For potential users, most of them do not know exactly what kind of products, many functions are also yy out. The third step is to digest their own, can not ignore the voice of users, do not blindly follow the user. Listen to all the voices and make your own judgments. Angel users are very important, he can help you in the complex pain points, functions, needs of a clear mind to determine the direction of the product. Treat them kindly!

Products and users are compatible with each other, users need products to solve problems, products need users to determine the direction of iteration products.