Bad signups ain’t all bad
Signup quality matters, but it doesn't mean you have to always say no to bad signups.
Austin Yang
Growing Products People Love
Latest posts
User research vs. User understanding
When it comes to product discovery, two distinct skills often get mixed up: Conducting user research Actually understanding users To understand users, you need to do research. But you can do a lot of research without ever understanding your users. Most articles and courses can only teach you the mechanics of user research: theories, techniques, [ ]
Two types of “high-level” talent
In the world of “high-level” talent, you ll run into two types of people: 1. The experienced craftsman These are people who have years of experience doing in-depth, hands-on work in a particular field. They are so good at their crafts that they can abstract and generalize a vast amount of knowledge into principles, frameworks, and [ ]
Quantify feature value, truth-seeking vs. POV, no-code for PMs
I recently did a Q A with Esteban Contreras, VP of Product at Fleetio, on his newsletter Product State. We chatted about some interesting product management topics, so I thought to share the conversation here with you all as well. EC: How may PMs quantify the value of a product feature? Me: I’ll try to answer this [ ]
The better solution doesn’t always win
We ve moved past the point where product managers and founders use the Henry Ford quote (car vs. faster horse) to justify not talking to users. But there s another interesting aspect of this quote that doesn t get discussed enough: You might think that, all things being equal, a solution that can deliver the best user value [ ]
Users not activating? Treat the cause, not symptoms
Here is a common mistake SaaS teams make when working on activation: You notice users dropping off before completing a basic setup task (that s not even that unique to your product). You thought, Probably too much friction. - So you remove some steps, make UI simpler, and shorten copy to reduce cognitive load. But the [ ]
The path dependence trap
By now, most founders and product managers know not to fall into the build trap — in other words, getting stuck building products nobody wants. To avoid this trap, the consensus approach is to spend the minimum amount of effort to validate an idea before investing further resources, also known as MVP (or MLP/MTP if [ ]
A slightly tweaked “Rocks, Pebbles, Sand” analogy
When it comes to product planning, the common advice is to think of it as filling a jar: You start with Rocks (big bets), then add in Pebbles (mid-size features), and fill in remaining gap with Sand (small improvements). But this approach has a flaw in practice. It s common for a product team to have [ ]
Facts vs. Opinions
What most product managers get wrong about "facts, not opinions."
How mobile signups impact activation rate
Why mobile signup ratio matters so much for SaaS activation.