A point here that I think gets lost sometimes in the "ship it" mentality is that you can't iterate your way to figuring out your one thing. You need to start with the one thing and then iterate, not vice versa.
Isn't pivoting basically a decision you reach after realizing you need to iterate your "one thing"? I would argue that realizing you can iterate your one thing is as important as the idea of having one thing.
thankuz: Browsing your profile and submissions I noticed that you are submitting 20 to 30 stories per day. Don't you think that is a bit much, and that this frequency makes it much harder for other interesting stories to get noticed? I would have written you an email, but you haven't got one in your profile.
Too bad you can only vote once, i would put a +20 on this !
That's for me the critical feature #1 in a service : your users use your product for one very clear reason. They come to your app to do specifically this. There might be other features on your app, but there's a main one, clearly defined.
And by using this feature, they get value. It is simple, it is straightforward. Value can be content (Quora answers). Value can be an action or reaction (check-in, "count me in" on a plancast). Value can mean earning or saving dollars.
corollary: ONE entity cannot have three priorities.
If you have to answer to three departments equally you CAN have three priorities. That's what managers are for, to turn those into 1. Lots of companies still don't seem to get this.
[+] [-] erikstarck|15 years ago|reply
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
[holds up one finger]
Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.
Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"
Curly: [smiles] That's what you have to find out.
[+] [-] Stormbringer|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] betashop|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notJim|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metachris|15 years ago|reply
http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=thankuz
[+] [-] thankuz|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lolizbak|15 years ago|reply
That's for me the critical feature #1 in a service : your users use your product for one very clear reason. They come to your app to do specifically this. There might be other features on your app, but there's a main one, clearly defined.
And by using this feature, they get value. It is simple, it is straightforward. Value can be content (Quora answers). Value can be an action or reaction (check-in, "count me in" on a plancast). Value can mean earning or saving dollars.
Love the subject, blogged about it here: http://laurentk.posterous.com/in-search-of-the-perfect-viral...
[+] [-] betashop|15 years ago|reply
The best apps do just one thing very well.
[+] [-] betashop|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thankuz|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexqgb|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dylanlacey|15 years ago|reply
If you have to answer to three departments equally you CAN have three priorities. That's what managers are for, to turn those into 1. Lots of companies still don't seem to get this.
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
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