Summary of Lecture 4 - Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing (Adora Cheung)
In this lecture, Adora Cheung shares valuable insights on building a successful startup, focusing on the importance of talking to users, solving real problems, and immersing oneself in the industry. She emphasizes the need to spend dedicated time on the startup, gather feedback from users, and become an expert in the industry to continuously improve the product.
- Cheung advises against keeping ideas secret and not seeking feedback before launching, stressing the significance of clearly defining the problem the idea solves and verifying its relevance by talking to potential users.
- She recommends starting with a minimal viable product and concentrating on one growth channel at a time to optimize for future growth stages.
Furthermore, Cheung discusses the calculation of Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) by dividing Cost Per Click (CPC) by conversion rates and highlights the importance of ensuring that Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) minus CAC is more than zero to earn a profit. She suggests breaking down acquisition costs by customer segments, focusing on payback time, and prioritizing sustainability in business growth strategies.
Cheung also shares insights on pivoting in a startup, recommending a pivot when growth stagnates, users do not retain, or business economics do not make sense. She provides a growth plan strategy where the number of users should double each week and suggests considering a pivot if there is no growth for three to four weeks consecutively.
Lastly, Cheung addresses the challenge of getting users to switch to a new product, emphasizing the importance of finding clear differentiators from existing solutions to attract users. Throughout the lecture, she stresses the need for continuous iteration, optimization, and prioritizing sustainability in growth strategies to achieve long-term success in building a product and talking to users.
Notable Quotes
— 34:04 — « Sticky growth is trying to get your existing users to keep buying stuff. »
— 34:31 — « Customer lifetime value is the amount of net revenue that a customer brings in over a certain period. »
— 40:41 — « Program mechanics are like $10 for $10, where you get $10 if you invite a friend and they use it. »
— 41:55 — « The correct way to think about paid growth is that youre going to put money out there, what are you going to get in return. »
— 46:03 — « payback time is very important, you know, a safe one to go with is three months if you have very high risk, if youre a very risk-loving, you know maybe 12 months is better, Beyond 12 months is very much an unsafe territory. »
Category
Educational