The Art of Product

97: To Build, or Not to Build - Jane Portman of Userlist

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While Ben’s on vacation, Derrick welcomes another podcast host who can commiserate with him about email automation.

Jane Portman is a UI/UX expert and consultant who hosts the UI Breakfast Podcast and co-founded Userlist.io. She describes what it takes to create a customer messaging tool.

Today’s Topics Include:

  • Product Priorities: Slow, steady, and quality
  • Lifestyle Business: Overall goal is to replace consulting with SaaS recurring revenue
  • Challenges: Limited development time and resources; slow growth rate to adopt mission-critical product
  • To Build, or Not to Build: Avoid feature creep by focusing on what to add or improve
  • Playbook Post: 10 steps to successfully position a product
  • Launch Process: People are waiting for the right time for the right tool for their business
  • Customer Conversations: Pre-product interviews about problem to be solved; followed by product demos to grant access to beta version for feedback
  • Finding Customers: Landing page, updates, stories, sign-ups, mailing list, and more
  • We’re out of Beta! Simple and straight-forward product launch plan and strategy
  • Generic Illustrations: Product design trend that has to end
  • Email Experiences: Educate people on how to ethically use email to serve their business

    • Links and resources:

    User Onboarding: The Ultimate Guide for SaaS Founders

    UI Breakfast Podcast

    Userlist.io

    UI Breakfast on Twitter

    Userlist.io on Twitter

    Behind the Scenes of Our Upcoming Public Launch

    How We Used April Dunford’s 10-Step Method to Overhaul Positioning at Userlist

    AoP Episode 91: Feeling Superhuman with Rahul Vohra

    Product Hunt

    Hacker News

    Drip

    MailChimp

    Humans of Flat Design on Twitter 

    Paul Jarvis

    MicroConf

    Art of Product on Twitter

    Derrick Reimer Website

    Derrick Reimer on Twitter

    Ben Orenstein Website

    Ben Orenstein on Twitter

    Tuple

    Tuple’s Pair Programming Guide

    StaticKit

    Level

    Level Retrospective

    Level Manifesto

    ...more
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    The Art of ProductBy Ben Orenstein and Derrick Reimer
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