4 builders who never spoke to each other
Read the signup who never returns as failure one
Accounts created and abandoned are the earliest clear signal that something is wrong, and they show up on day one rather than after another year of building. Do not count them as users. Value has to land on the first visit, because a product that only makes sense once you have taught someone why it matters never gets to teach them, so instrument the points where the experience breaks and offer help automatically.
The method
- 01
Signups that never return are the earliest and clearest failure signal. Read them the day they start, not after another year of building.
- 02
Expect most free signups to create an account and never come back, and do not count them as users.
- 03
If a product only makes sense once the user has been taught why it matters, you will not get to teach them. Value has to land immediately on signup or they leave.
- 04
Once you have too many customers to watch individually, instrument the points where the experience fails rather than where the code fails, and trigger an offer of help automatically.
What it returned
- 148
Of the roughly 148 blogs on MDX.one he believed over 100 had never been used once, and he deleted more than 50 that were never set up.
Problems showed up the moment Eventloot went live, when users would register once and not come back.
ABBY documented A/B test results, a benefit most visitors did not already want, and the founder names that education gap as the reason it failed.
His example is detecting five consecutive failed attempts at entering card details and messaging that person, plus alerting when a user fails to clear a key onboarding milestone
Sources
- July 2021: Retrospective & Income ReportBhanu Teja · bhanuteja.dev · What happened in July · undated
- Micro-SaaS Ebook: Retention & SupportTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Tactics: Automate Empathy · 2017-07-31
- ABBY: Here’s What Andy Has Learned from an A/B Test ToolAndy Goldschmidt · failory.com · Which was the problem with ABBY? How did you realize? · undated
- Eventloot: Failing to Listen Feedback Means $20,000 LossJustin Anyanwu · failory.com · How did you find your business problems? · undated
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.
More in product
- Give away a tool that pulls its own audience7 unconnected
- Take many small shots instead of one big bet6 unconnected · contested
- Get it into real hands, or shape it first6 unconnected · contested
- Cap the hours and let the ceiling design the business6 unconnected · contested
- Set the bar for writing code deliberately high6 unconnected
- Buy nothing until there is revenue6 unconnected