Six Weeks since Launch

Six weeks since we went live, so what are we up to?

We are working with a small core group of users. A handful of companies. They use it, they tell me what is wrong, and I focus on resolving those issues.

I could chase signups instead. The number would go up, but I would learn at a slower pace.

What I am learning is that people do not ask clean questions. They ask the messy ones. Then come three follow-ups. Then they ask the same thing again, a different way, to see if the answer holds. The first couple of questions are always a quick test. The third one is when they stop testing and start working.

Connectors. Everyone wants to know what is next. I stopped guessing. If a user cannot get an answer because it lives in a system we do not reach yet, that system moves up the list. The order after that gets decided by them, not by me and a market map.

Headcount, same idea. We will need more people. I am not hiring ahead of what we have learned. Every hire has to answer one question. What does a user get out of it?

Not the glamorous part to write about. It is the real work, and I would not have it any other way.