2 builders who never spoke to each other

Say publicly what you refuse to build

When a request would undercut the thing you sell on, decline it in public and explain the reasoning, so the refusal becomes part of the positioning rather than a private disappointment. Running the company this way, publishing the memo and the roadmap and turning repeat questions into posts, means the audience supplies your next subject.

The method

1. 01

   Decline feature requests that would undercut the thing you sell on, and say publicly why you will not build them.

2. 02

   Run the company openly, publishing your setbacks and your wins in posts and on a podcast, and the questions readers send back become your next posts.

3. 03

   Publish the memo you wrote for your investors and your roadmap notes as public content about where the product is going.

What it returned

• Several customers asked for user journeys; Fathom refused because delivering it would need cookies or a server-side fingerprint tied to a person's history.

• Fathom answers the questions it gets repeatedly by turning each one into a public blog post, and runs a podcast called Above Board.

• The investor memo and next-chapter blog posts are linked publicly, next to the three named upcoming releases: an iOS app, a rebuilt plugin system and a new way to share learning resources.

Sources

• From knowledge-management to knowledge-creation with RemNoteMartin Schneider · nesslabs.com · From knowledge-management to knowledge-creation with the founders of RemNote · 2022-01-20
• How to build a privacy-first software business - Fathom AnalyticsJack Ellis · usefathom.com · Privacy should be the foundation of everything you do · 2020-10-05