Your Users Are Lazy, Vain, and Selfish
Scott Belsky has seen thousands of products. He has one rule: your first mile is the only mile.
In the first 30 seconds, every user is lazy, vain, and selfish. They want to get through fast. They want to look good. They want a quick win.
In the first 30 seconds, every user is lazy, vain, and selfish.
The Irony That Kills Products
The first mile is the part every customer sees. It is also the last thing companies build.
Teams spend months on features. They spend hours on onboarding. The splash page gets designed the night before launch.
This is backwards. The first mile is the only thing that matters at scale.
The first mile is the last thing companies build. That is why most products fail.
The 1% Secret
Belsky drops a bomb: nail the first mile and let everything else be mediocre. You will still be in the top 1% of products.
That sounds insane. But most products never get users past the front door. If you do, you already won.
Nail the first mile. Let everything else be mediocre. Top 1%.
The Silicon Valley Death Cycle
Great companies start simple. Users flood in. Then power users demand features. Investors demand revenue.
Complexity creeps in. More settings. More options. More friction. The first mile rots.
Meanwhile, new users are no longer early adopters. They are pragmatists. The first mile that worked for pioneers fails for everyone else.
Complexity creeps in. The first mile rots. The product dies.
The Fix
Spend time on your first mile forever. Not once. Not at launch. Forever.
Your audience changes. Your product changes. Your first mile must change with it. The companies that win never stop obsessing over the first 30 seconds.
The first mile is not a launch task. It is a forever task.