Product Habits - Steve Jobs on good ideas

Steve Jobs Talks About Great Ideas

In his 1995 "Lost Interview," Steve Jobs talked about great ideas and why they don't always translate into great products. He said there is an incredible amount of work required between idea and reality, and the quality and chemistry of a team change everything. You also learn so much while building that the product inevitably becomes something different from what you initially imagined. Listen to Jobs talk about the gap between great ideas and great products. 

The Future of Creativity

Adobe analyzed how 5,000 emoji users from the United States use emojis for self-expression, dating, and workplace communications. I was surprised by this statistic: 73% of U.S. emoji users think people who use them are friendlier, funnier, and cooler. Check out the full report here.

What Does the Post-Crash VC Market Look Like?

What will the VC market look like post-crash? The Upfront Ventures team concluded that this isn't a temporary dip VCs will recover from quickly. What happens in the public markets often filters back to private markets. If you're raising capital soon, plan on a different set of expectations than what we've gotten used to over the past decade. 

Hacking Your Product Leader Career

Becoming a world-class product leader requires a handful of technical and functional leadership skills and a healthy amount of risk and creativity. This is a thoughtful rubric of the skills and mindset required to be a great product leader. One of my favorite suggestions is to be deliberate about forming a "board of directors" to help you progress along your career path.

When Are Low-Code Prototypes Useful?

Low-code prototypes can help de-risk a new idea, but they don't work for every business category. This article lays out a framework that will help you evaluate execution and market risks, then decide whether low-code prototyping would work for your product. It's the most helpful for applications leveraging available technologies to solve a problem in a new way. 

Building an Efficient Marketing Machine

Building an efficient marketing machine requires both a healthy engine and an ample amount of fuel. The "engine" is all the channels, processes, tools, and metrics you use to distribute and track your efforts. The "fuel" is everything you share with your audience—from a blog post to an explainer video. Here's how you can use the fuel-engine concept to create a great team and strategy.

How To Market Your SaaS on YouTube

I don't think many SaaS companies view YouTube as an important traction channel, but if done well, it can be. For example, the two-person Atlist team started investing time and energy into YouTube, and it's now their highest-performing marketing channel. Here's how they did it—and some things they wish they knew sooner. 

The Expert Guide To Creating a Marketing Growth Strategy

One of the most helpful things a growth marketer can learn to do is fail fast but ultimately win through small, incremental improvements that compound over time. Most of the time, you don't know what your customers want. The process outlined here will help you get the answers you're looking for more methodically.