
Startups Do Not Prepare You to Create Products - twidlit
https://unicornfree.com/2013/startups-do-not-repeat-do-not-prepare-you-for-a-product-business
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PMan74
Fact: prefacing your opinions with the word "Fact" does not make them actual
facts. An example:

> Fact: the moon is made of blue cheese

My opinion - articles that try to generalise from a certain kind of start-up
to all start-ups don't really stand up

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skewart
I gather the author works for an agency. I wonder if this has colored their
perception of startups. Maybe startups that hire agencies for various things
are more likely to match the author's rather bleak description. A company that
actually is passionately focused on making users happy might be more likely to
keep everything in-house.

By all means, lots of great, passionate startups hire agencies to help with
all kinds of things. I just wouldn't be surprised if a whole lot of get-rich-
quick dreamers did too.

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thothamon
Does this article actually have a specific message? I read the whole thing and
it sounds something like "businesses will exploit you." (True, but duh.) Or
maybe "startups are trying to be acquired." (Sometimes true, sometimes false.)

I'm not even sure she has a specific meaning for the word "startup," or that
her usage means the same thing that most other people mean by that term.

Most people want most things as a means to an end, so it's hard for me to see
how using product sales/adoption as a driver toward being an attractive
acquisition is unusual, surprising or crazy; but either way, not every startup
wants to be acquired, and not every startup is trying to drive toward that
end. One of the many "facts" in the article that are not facts.

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AndrewUnmuted
These "facts" do not apply to startups that actually succeed. Understanding
customer demands and tracking business intelligence related to customer
behaviors are two incredibly useful strategies for developing great products.
I've seen startups do it all the time.

I worked with the startup Streamable.com for a short time, and Armen, the CEO,
once told me something really insightful. He said to me, "There are no
'product' people - successful web products are designed by listening to your
users and designing appropriately." As the CEO, he was the one listening to
users and communicating with them. I thought this was a novel approach, and
given how great Streamable is, I think Armen was on to something.

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devin_liu
If you're going to sell me a self-help guide, I want tangible benefits. Tell
me if it's about losing weight, managing my time, or how to my shoes.

Don't just call me a fat lazy slob as I'm tripping down the stairs.

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dgreensp
There's a kernel of truth in that a lot of start-ups are pretty bad at product
development or working in a sustainable way that produces quality results,
because the founders are focused on something else -- the "vision", the
business model, or even hiring.

If you add up all the generalizations in the article, though (e.g. looking
good for a future acquirer above all else) we're talking about a small
fraction of start-ups, not start-ups as a category.

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ealexhudson
Large amounts of sense. I don't totally agree, but I think you end up working
on a snapshot of a product in a start-up: when we talk about stories, what
we're doing is envisaging a best-of-possible-worlds view of a future product.

