Michael Seibel - Building Product

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:53 What allowed us to survive?
00:03:50 What problem are you solving?
00:10:11 Who is your customer?
00:18:39 Does your MVP actually solve the problem?
00:21:10 Which customers should you go after first? (the easy ones!)
00:25:46 Should you discount or start with a super low price? (no!)
00:27:58 How to setup metrics
00:32:02 Product Development Cycle (v1)
00:43:44 Pivot vs Iterate
00:46:09 Fake vs Real Steve Jobs
00:48:04 Summary
00:51:06 Q&A

[chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) -
00:00 - Intro
00:53 - JustinTV (Twitch now) make a lot of mistakes but the things that allowed them to survive
03:50 - What problem are you solving?
05:31 - Can you state the problem clearly?
05:45 - Have you experienced it yourself?
06:12 - Can you define your problem narrowly?
07:02 - Is the problem solvable?
10:11 - Who is your customer?
10:23 - Everyone? (no!)
11:30 - How often do they have the problem?
13:50 - How intense is the problem?
15:07 - Are they willing to pay?
17:05 - How easy are they to find?
18:39 - Does your MVP actually solve the problem?
21:10 - Which customers should you go after first? (the easy ones!)
24:25 - Which customers should you run away from? (the hard ones!)
25:46 - Should you discount or start with a super low price? (no!)
27:58 - How to setup metrics
28:15 - Google Analytics + Something else
29:36 - Pick 5-10 important stats
31:13 - Make measurements a part of product spec
32:02 - Product Development Cycle (v1)
36:11 - KPI Goal
37:52 - Brainstorm
39:01 - Easy/Medium/Hard
40:50 - Decide
41:35 - Written Spec
43:44 - Pivot vs Iterate
44:43 - Pivot = Changing the customer and/or changing the problem (rare)
44:59 - Iterate = changing the solution (common)
46:09 - Fake Steve Jobs vs Real Steve Jobs (how not to be a product dictator)
48:04 - Summary - Find the right customers, ask specific what they want, and make it.
51:06 - Question 1 - Should you be going free if the final idea for the product is to be free?
52:27 - Question 2 - KPI is revenue and the number is zero, should you still be tracking that as your top line KPI?
53:50 - Question 3 - Hardware company pre-launch pre-sales tips?
54:29 - Question 4 - Hardest part of having a slow burn?
55:26 - Question 5 - Beta to early MVP?
56:51 - Question 6 - How do one figure out what feature to build next?
58:09 - Outro

[anish.wijesinghe]

I'm a products person. And I spent countless hours researching about how to make my process better. And this video has been one of the most brilliantly put together pieces of content on product delivery I've seen.

[ronque]

1. Need to first resolve what the pain you’re solving. Can you state the problem plainly in one or two sentences.
2. Is it a problem you’ve experienced yourself?
3. Can you define the problem narrowly, immediately.
4. Is the problem solvable?
5. Who is your customer? You have to focus on an ideal initial loser/early adopter.
6. How often does your user have the problem? Who’s getting the most value? It helps to have a problem that people use frequently.
7. How intense is the problem?
8. Are they willing to pay? Sometimes it’s better to make the product harder to use to see if it’s an intense enough problem or not. Don’t start free. Charge a price and a good price.
9. How easy are your customers to find?
10. Does your MVP solve the problem you designed it to?
11. Which customers should you go after first? Don’t just go after the hardest ones. With MVP, find people desperate enough to use a bad product? (Maybe people at stores already). How do you find people who desperately need your app? Ignore investors of friends to ask these questions. Once you have customers it’s good to identify bad customers who are toxic and have unrealistic expectations. Some exploit in bad faith.
12. Don’t discount unless it’s a way to speed up a sale.
13. Set up metrics. Don’t use Google analytics. It’s important so you know if your products is. Wing used or not. Doesn’t tell you how long people used each item on your page. It’s good to have a highly technical team to use Mix Panel. Pick 5-10 simple stats at the beginning.
14. Make measurement a part of your product spec. Building measurement are a part of your product spec as part of first release.
15. Product development cycle: (v1)
A. KPI—Track revenue if you charge customers or usage if not.
B. BRAINSTORM—any idea is written in the board. Lots of value in seeing idea in writing.
C. Iterate and talk to customers to see what they like to improve your product.
C. Do hard first, medium, then hard.
D. Written spec—write down what you mean by every step and how it’s gonna work.

[MrGiustom]

I've met Micheal during the Startup School Beijing in May 2018. I was impressed by his modesty and humanity. Thanks to his tips, I'm finally managing to achieve product-market fit!

[kelvingitari]

"You don't understand the problem you're solving, until you understand the person you're solving it for." Michael 10:15 That's powerful!

[asutoshmittapalli]

There are times when you think YC's program is very competitive and overrated, now I know the incredible value that folks like Micheal Siebel add to YC startups. This is absolutely gold!

[chiefenumclaw]

When I finished watching this I watched it again just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I can think of no higher compliment.

[JordanCrawfordSF]

I doubt there is another video on YouTube that is so actionable and helpful for startups in 2018.

Thank you!

[ionasguitar]

This is one of the best videos for startups in YouTube. Michael knows exactly what he is talking about!

[millertime]

I got a degree in business and entrepreneurship and learned more in this talk. Listen to this 5x and start creating 💪🏾

[praddingari]

Thank you, Michael Seibel and Y Combinator. This video has great practical, no-nonsense, and direct insights for Product builders.

[Melissa-tkng]

This is hands down one of if not the best recorded advice for start-ups. So glad I found this. Thanks for making it accessible.

[ozzyfromspace]

This man is easily the best communicator I've come across in a long time. He says things so precisely, and his use of concrete examples really helps me understand. I'm only a few minutes into his talk and the thing about babysitters isn't something I can say I've appreciated. Sure, I've thought about how my tech-in-development might work in different markets one day, but his exercise of narrowing your first market to see if the problem you're trying to address is even solvable was so eye opening. Anyway, time to unpause and get back to this amazing learning experience! If I apply to YC, it's because of Micheal Seibel (i.e. to get closer to people with that kind of wisdom).

[jasoncheung]

21:10 is gold.


When you're testing out your MVP (as I am now), you don't want users who only kind of like your product. Go for the easiest customers, meaning people who show that they want what you're selling them. These people will be your early adopters.


A good indicator of whether people want what you're selling them is if they're using your product and paying you.

[devjeet_choudhury]

YC videos are GOLD for startups and the application itself is a great questionnaire to analyse your startup.

[hussamalshamaily]

Michael Seibel is one of my favourite so far in YCSS 2018. Thank you

[brianwestphal]

It's amazing how common sensical this is. But the beauty is in asking the right questions so it seems simple.

[DuraanAli]

This is the best talk I have ever listened about product development. Love it

[RonaldNyakahuma]

I have just shared this video with my co-founders and all other colleagues. Tomorrow we shall watch it together as a team.

[joshuasuzyomazubagoma]

YC is my favorite. I don't know how I never knew about it all along. People pay a lot of money for this information. Thank you very much for this YC.