I started to watch the invaluable series of videos from the Startup School of Y-Combinator. Here I’m sharing some of the points in the discussion I found more interesting.
This is based on their YouTube Playlist, which is the 2017 version. The most up-to-date info is in their official site startupschool.org

In this video we have a panel session with Reddit and Twitch founders Steve Huffman and Emmett Shear.

Key points:

  • Communicate with users. Particularly those who know the competitors and prefer the competitors over our product. They have a clear understanding of what they want.

  • Publish a crappy MVP and get feedback from real users, do not wait to get your MVP out there.

  • Metrics:

    • Reddit: Get a data tracking system that is easy to see. 1 dashboard that has it all.

    • Twitch: Do not put time developing your own at the beginning. Use google analytics or whatever is ready for that. Focus on a couple of metrics, you do not have to measure everything. Just focus on the key feature you want to measure.

  • Reflecting feedback and redesign:

    • Pay attention to feedback. Or you will be redesigning something users do not want.

    • Add features on top of what you have. One feature at a time. At the beginning you do not need to redesign all from scratch every time.

    • Use a third-party library if they exist.

  • Taking decision on what to change/improve:

    • Listen to users first and decide based on that. Do not do the opposite: Think of a nice feature or change and then look for user validation. This is a waste of time. Just go for what users want, they will tell you what to do.

  • Planning your journey:

    • Reddit: He seems to suggest using backcasting. Set a goal on how your startup should be 1 year ahead. Think of the milestones to achieve along the year to get there, and the metrics to follow for that. And do a periodic check-up to see if everything goes as planned. He suggested revising every 2 weeks.

  • Product/Market fit:

    • Twitch: Is organic. You will notice when you hit the fit, because the product starts growing fast (by number us users and features being developed).

    • Getting funding does not mean product/market fit!