

Is Your Product Too Engaging? - ovechtrick
http://ryanhoover.me/post/65523627397/is-your-product-too-engaging

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wesleyac
_coughhackernewscough_

Not exactly the same, the there's a reason that noprocrast is there.

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guynamedloren
Wow, I've seen noprocrast dozens of times but never thought to use it. Now
that I've looked into it, it's actually a fantastic model (maxvisit and
minaway). Not hard to comprehend, but if anybody's curious:

[http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html#07nov07](http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html#07nov07)

I wonder if there are any chrome extensions that share a similar model.. I use
'stayfocusd' right now, but it's nowhere near as effective.

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namenotrequired
I use this - it's not a chrome extension, but an OS X application that blocks
sites for all browsers:
[http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/](http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/)

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guynamedloren
Oh this is fantastic. Almost exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!

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alexcaps
That's why we limited introductions to one per day on At The Pool and quickly
scaled to 100+ countries...

[http://atthepool.com](http://atthepool.com)

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rrhoover
Ahh, good example, Alex. I've used your product before. Coffee Meets Bagel
uses a similar one-per-day approach. Smart.

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jonathanjaeger
Interesting that this is "Tinder for startup professionals" because the co-
founder of Tinder said they're interested in applying their idea to
professionals in the future (not just dating).

The co-founder of treatings.co has been blogging on PandoDaily every week
about doing the same idea. I guess a bunch of people are going after this
space, and I wouldn't be surprised if LinkedIn has a more noticeable feature
like this in the future.

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AznHisoka
The problem isn't that your product is too engaging. The problem is it's not
good enough for your users. In your example, you don't have enough users in
your app to make it more useful. The solution isn't to make it less engaging -
it's to add more users. To make it more useful.

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rrhoover
Not quite. The biggest issue is connecting too many people at once. Assuming
the goal is to meet people in person for coffee (and one could argue that
meeting via email is just as or more valuable), making numerous connections
floods the user with "commitments" to meet. Most people are too busy to meet
several people (e.g. 5) within a 1-2 week time frame. The product needs to
address this flood.

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elacey
the double buy-in approach is interesting, and being applied to a lot of
different use cases - hr/employment, by Angel list, hooking up, via Bang With
Friends (now called Down) and of course Tinder, and also dating via OkCupid
locals... it's especially effective if the subject of connection is not
something you wish to socially broadcast, due to stigma or fear of rejection
(jobs/dates/hooking-up/etc.). There's a lot of untapped use cases where
applying double buy-in would be effective, like finding a roommate. Or,
perhaps situationally it could be effective and reduce the fear of rejection
or awkwardness associated with striking up a conversation at a bar or at a
convention, etc.

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rrhoover
What examples can you think of outside of gaming or dating that face this
challenge?

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ljlolel
turntable.fm

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rrhoover
You think so? It doesn't have a content problem (there's infinite music).

I posited that Turntable.fm failed for other reasons:
[http://ryanhoover.me/post/45420658844/what-killed-
turntable-...](http://ryanhoover.me/post/45420658844/what-killed-turntable-fm)

