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independence2 unconnected · 1 more author in those circles
applies to

b2b, no audience needed

confidence

high

evidence

4 claims · 4 articles · 4 receipts

window

2015-02-03 → 2024-03-24

2 builders who never spoke to each other

Make the interface itself the reason to switch

In a category filling with near identical products, unusual simplicity and a pleasant experience are a real differentiator, particularly in business software where buyers expect neither. Concentrate effort on the part you are differentiated on and buy the parts you are worst at from an established third party.

The method

  1. 01

    In a category filling up with near identical products, interface and experience quality is a workable differentiator.

  2. 02

    When your category floods with lookalikes, pick the axis you can actually win on; if you cannot outspend or outpromote them, compete on the product itself.

  3. 03

    In business software, an unusually simple interface plus genuinely good support is itself a differentiator, because buyers there are accustomed to appalling software and worse service.

  4. 04

    Outsource the part of the product you are worst at to an established third-party library and put your own effort into the part where you are differentiated.

What it returned

  • Users repeatedly said it was the best of the comparable tools they had tried.

  • Facing an influx of SaaS boilerplates that had not yet dented his sales, Zue concluded he would not out-market the newcomers but could out-product them.

  • Storemapper customers regularly sent unprompted notes expressing delight, which the author attributes to how low the bar is in business software

  • Zue added a purchased theme to Pegasus rather than building his own CSS and design, got more positive customer feedback than on any prior release, and saw customers upgrade faster than they ever had.

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.