Product Habits - Nobody really owns product work

It's Hard To Draw Lessons From Your Own Failures

This past week, Andrew Wilkinson wrote a tweet thread that went viral about how he lost $10 million dollars by doing something stupid. In it, he referenced Basecamp as the inspiration for the model he followed that eventually led to his big mistake. Basecamp Co-Founder David Heinemeier Hansson fired back, citing all of the ways Wilkinson didn't follow Basecamp's bootstrap principles. This response highlights why it's so difficult for us to analyze and learn from our failures. 

The Deck Airbyte Used To Raise Its Seed Round in 13 Days

Airbyte launched last July and, five months later, raised a seed round with Accel in 13 days. This is exactly what their deck looked look slide-by-slide, with an explanation for each one. If you're thinking about raising a seed round in the near future, bookmark this for reference. 

Vertical vs. Horizontal SaaS Explained

The more you understand the difference between vertical and horizontal SaaS, the better your chances of building your own successful SaaS company. Horizontal SaaS is a type of cloud software that is targeted to a wide audience of users, regardless of industry—think QuickBooks or Salesforce. In contrast, vertical SaaS builds software solutions for particular industries—think Bio IQ (MedTech) and Guidewire (insurance). Here's why understanding the difference is important. 

The Clubhouse Clones Are Coming

Clubhouse has become something of an antidote for our social disconnection during the pandemic.  It's no surprise that clones are beginning to pop up. Every major tech and social media platform—from Twitter and Facebook to Slack and Spotify—are coming out with their own versions of drop-in audio social networking tools. Do you think any of these will work long-term?

Nobody Really Owns Product Work

Basecamp's Jonas Downey hit the nail on the head with this post: Nobody really owns anything in a product made by a team. In his words, "Whatever ownership you have over an individual contribution is immediately forfeited the moment you commit the code." Understanding this will save you a lot of heartaches—and feature attachment issues.

Your Marketing Is Set Up for Failure if...

Daniel Murray listed six important ways in which your marketing efforts might be set up for failure. A few of the ones that stood out to me: You try to be everything to everyone and you overpromise but underdeliver. The tweet reply additions are great, too. Would you add anything to this list? 

How To Write the Best Headlines

Writing great headlines is an art form that too few people pay attention to. The BuzzSumo team analyzed 100 million headlines to find some best practices, which I found insightful. Here are a few highlights from the findings: Headline phrases that provoke curiosity tend to work best on Twitter, while instructional headlines drive the most Facebook engagement. Read on to learn more about how headlines have changed in the past five years and how to create ideal headlines now. 

UiPath's S-1 and IPO Teardown

UiPath, a leader in robotics process automation and enabling the fully automated enterprise, is one of the fastest-growing software companies ever. The company went from $1m in revenue to $600m in five short years. This is a fantastic teardown of the company's origin story, growth trajectory, and S-1 filing.