A product design publication by Lucas Holm.
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Thought #1

7 Product Lessons from 7 Years in a Startup

Lucas Holm

1. You Need Less Features Than You Think

Just a few really good ones.

2. Don’t Put Emphasis on Your Design System

Following a formula is comforting, but it limits your creativity and critical thinking. Users don’t care about your perfect design system.

3. Stop Believing in All Metrics

Every metric doesn’t fit your product.

Some metrics are garbage.
Like Net Promoter Score (might explain another time).

Pick wisely.
In the end, all metrics serve the question: Are we making money?

You don't need a degree in statistics to determine that.

4. Bigger Is Not Better

A small product team gets s**t done.
Large teams often imply pseudo positions, needless meetings, slow processes and bureaucracy.

You don’t have to hire fancy UX Researchers, Scrum Masters, Product Owners and Agile Coaches.

You won’t ship better products.
You won’t ship faster.

With fewer folks, you can ship more, faster.

5. Agile Frameworks Suck

With agile frameworks like SCRUM, it has become standard practice to exaggerate the efforts required to perform a task.

It’s predictable but slow.
Don’t mindlessly follow a framework because it’s trendy.

6. Build on Assumption

Taste and opinion are valid foundations for building.
Competent people have competent opinions.

You don’t have to host workshops and conduct A/B tests to build great products.

7. Start Simple, Iterate

Start by building the simplest thing that works.
Get the product out into the world.
Talk to customers.

Iterate quickly.