Product People

In this episode of Product People: does Amy Hoy still get scared before a launch? How do you choose an audience? And she answers some listener questions.

Show Notes

In this episode of Product People: does Amy Hoy still get scared before a launch? How do you choose an audience? And she answers some listener questions.

Highlights
  • “The 30×500 bootcamp has been moved to June 15/16: Why you should do a tiny product first”
  • “So much of what we’re doing (with our online courses) is creating community.”
  • “Our Bacon Biz community will be open to everybody: baconbiz.com”
  • “People have set-up their lives where they let themselves get jerked around by their emotions all the time.”
  • “If you launch something, you’re going to get good feedback and bad feedback. No matter what the price is, somebody’s going to complain about the price.”
  • “People unconsciously prioritize their feelings as an excuse.”
  • “Sometimes you’ll go to someone, because you need some advice, but they’ll end up re-enforcing the wrong things. You need to find people that can focus on facts.” – Justin
  • “So many ills are cause by just reacting to feelings.”
  • “What really scares me is karaoke.”
  • “Ask yourself: What logical data is telling me I should be afraid? What’s the worst possible thing that could happen?”
  • “The key, seems to be, to keep trying things. Not everything’s a home run, but they keep trying.”
  • “A lot of people’s fear is of what people will think of you.”
  • “The easiest way for me to turn this around, is to quit being so self-centred. To keep reminding myself: it’s not about me.”
  • “Don’t ask: what do I want to build? Ask: what do people need?”
  • “You can’t actually help anyone; you can only help people that want to help themselves.”
  • “You have to help people with something specific, as opposed to being general. You’ll
  • “When people ask me: ‘what audience should I serve?’ I ask them: ‘Well, what are you? If you’re a Ruby developer, than serve Ruby developers!’ Stick within your own circles.”
  • “You’ve already chosen your audience by who you’re already associating with.”
  • “To punch above your weight you need to use every single advantage you have. If you try to pick a new market you know nothing about, you’re giving up one of your core advantages.”
  • “Start serving the audience you already belong to.”
  • How can people break out of their insecurity? “It’s not a question of ‘who you are’. Do your research: what does it tell you? You don’t have to wonder ‘what do I have to offer that people want?’ Look at your resume.”
  • “Always be researching customers; never stop. I look wherever people congregate: forums, mailing lists, blog posts, off-hand comments from people on Twitter, support portals, user groups.”
  • “Don’t walk up and ask people what their problems are; you have to observe.”
  • Where do you keep your customer research notes? “I use a text file. Simple as that. Don’t use fancy tools.”
  • “For content marketing, I take what I’ve learned in my research phase, and write posts around that.”
  • When we sell people things, are we pandering to their narcism? “It’s not narcissistic to think about yourself, and what you need. It’s narcissistic to think that everything’s about you.”
  • “We don’t have to add new features to compete. New features don’t always make a product better.”
Show notes
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Shout outs

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Creators & Guests

Host
Justin Jackson
⚡ Bootstrapping, podcasting, calm companies, business ethics. Co-founder of @transistorfm (podcast hosting).

What is Product People?

A podcast focused on great products and the people who make them