3 builders who never spoke to each other

Make the product worth talking about first

Every promotion step gets easier when the thing itself is remarkable, which makes product quality the precondition rather than the consolation prize. One company put its engineering into speed, uptime and scale for years without shipping new features and watched retention feed referrals and a thousand reviews. Once signups arrive at even a trickle, making the product indispensable to those users returns more than chasing more of them.

The method

1. 01

   A product that is genuinely remarkable makes every promotion step easier, so treat that as the precondition rather than the consolation.

2. 02

   Spend engineering time on the promise you already made, even for years without shipping new features, because keeping it is what drives referrals and reviews.

3. 03

   Make the delivered work good enough to be talked about and referrals become the pipeline, replacing outbound entirely.

4. 04

   Once signups arrive at even a trickle, the highest return activity is making the product a must have for those users, because impressed users recruit others.

What it returned

• 16

  WP Engine put its engineering into speed, uptime and scale, held best-in-industry retention for 16 years, and saw that feed growth via referrals plus a thousand strong reviews.

• Justin quotes Giacomo Guilizzoni, founder of Balsamiq Studios.

• Stewart Townsend has gone more than ten years without needing to chase outbound leads.

Sources

• Your blog could be a partyJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · And most importantly · undated
• The roadmap to Product/Market Fit (PMF)… maybeJason Cohen · longform.asmartbear.com · WP Engine followed the roadmap and became a unicorn · 2023-12-24
• Consulting: Product Ladders, Scalability, ReferralsStewart Townsend · trends.vc · 🔑 Key Lessons · 2021-08-27
• Friday - From side project to raising $450kLuke Thomas · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated