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17 Comments

Be faster or be better - what way to grow?

Hey everyone! 👋 We're working on https://pixiko.com/ - online video editor and maker. Now we've ~130K monthly traffic and ~50K signed in users.

And I think about two product ways which for technical reasons are moving away from each other:
👉 add more and more cool effects into editor
👉 do rendering faster and faster

If we add a lot of customizable graphic effects we should use a browser as a render machine and it'll take some time to render video. If we don't add this effects we can render use ffmpeg and it's really faster.

I really want to give our users the coolest effects which allows to create a stunning videos and I suppose if we ask users to wait some time for rendering complete it's not so big problem especially in return for the really good result.

How do you think which is the best way to grow? 🤷‍♂️

  1. 2

    Why not both? Offer two options with clearly stated pros and cons - more effects but slower rendering, and less effects but faster rendering. Let them chose one or another. Over time you will see the usage, and you could even slightly upgrade the price for more requested option.

    1. 1

      Thanks for your advice) Oh, I really want to do it both but our CTO will resist 🤣

      1. 1

        💯 % agree with @Dotz. CTO must agreed

        1. 2

          I've screenshotted your comments and went to torment our CTO 👹

  2. 2

    If you did a customer survey, no doubt some customers would want the same thing faster, and others would want more features even if it takes more time.

    The trick is to figure out who your most VALUABLE customers are, do what they want, and ignore the others. Which users pay you most? Which are easiest to sign up and stick around the longest? Which users do you wish ALL your users were like?

    Do what they want.

    1. 1

      Oh, sorry, I completely forgot - THANKS for your advice 👍

    2. 1

      We analyze customer behaviour but there's no final understanding yet about who is the most valuable or long-term.

      I try to approve the way by using hypotheses:

      1. for better way - implement templates and message about generation speed on rendering page
      2. for faster way - develop a distributed rendering system with parallel computing for high-score users

      And measure a retention level for each of hypotheses.

  3. 2

    Are you able to speak to your customers?

    This seems like a pretty pivotal decision for your product. Try validating the issue as much as possible.

    1. 1

      Thanks for an answer 🙂

      Yes, we're implementing CRM-marketing and will ask our users about some features.

      But the main thing is don't fall into the trap like Henry Ford: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.” 😎

  4. 1

    Much said here already.

    It's a great time for a direct and honest survey request sent to users. Let them know you're going to focus on one and want to know which they absolutely need.

    Others have already mentioned that. The question is how...

    Ask:
    How upset would you be if we added 2 major features and made the rendering 2x slower?
    How upset would you be if we stopped adding features for 2 years to work on making the rendering 2x faster?
    We're dropping 2 features, which ones should we choose?

    • If the choices are stalk you should get strong opinions for/against...

    Of course current users might want a faster version of what they already use... The Henry Ford problem as you put it...

    Good luck!

    1. 1

      Thanks for your advice 👏 Yes, we thought about that way of testing and want to implement it in CRM-marketing.

      Oh, it's really about the Henry Ford problem)))

  5. 1

    Fail fast

    Learn Faster

  6. 1

    If you add effects , it will attract more users. In fact, even now the product is good. Sometimes I use it.

    1. 1

      Thanks 👍 Yeah, we think about this opportunity in case of SEO and it seems really good 😎

  7. 1

    Good product! That would be cooldo rendering faster and faster

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