Let Customers In Earlier! 🌄
We recently started letting in customers who had requested early access to Removaly and I'm thinking we waited too long. Here are some reasons why you should let your customers in earlier than you'd think:
1) People are willing to sign up before you think they are!
And in turn, people are willing to pay before you think they are. Most likely people will jump on the opportunity to sign up. Initially I wanted to have a few more features in order to "launch", but you need to remember that you're going to be the most critical of your startup in the early days because you know how much farther you want it to go and you know what's going on in the background (or not going on 😆). Everyone else sees the features you have and probably loves them (and will be impressed by your future improvements).
2) People are willing to give feedback!
There's no better way to make an amazing tool than to figure out what your customers actually expect in an amazing tool. If you ask your early users for feedback they will give it. So don't be afraid to ask! This is an awesome way to direct new features right from the get-go.
3) People are willing to write a review!
If there are users who have been engaging on points 1 and 2 from above, most likely they'd be willing to give you a review. You can then use that on your website or other review sites to boost your initial sales by having social proof. And chances are, if you're like me, you'll find that your users' reviews are much more positive than you'd expect! 😄
Hopefully these things inspire you to hit the ground running and launch sooner! Also I'm curious, when did you start letting customers in? How did you know it was time? And what was the result?
This is a good post. Thank you!
I recently launched my beta and getting 20-30 signups every week with limited marketing and the number is going up slowly. I waited a while to get the product going as I wanted it to be perfect but finally it is out. I am focusing on a freemium model and haven't seen an purchases yet. My next step is to ask for feedback from user, add more value and start charging from the get go. Your post has given me some good cues to tackle this.
It is difficult to let early access to the customer especially when you wish to present the best version of your product but customers will help you to focus where it matters and give constructive feedback. Dealing with criticism is also challenging but help to move forward. Thanks for sharing!
I completely agree in wanting to present the best version of your product. I guess my point is that oftentimes a great version of your product that your customer will love falls short of your idea of the best version of your product. And that if you launched at the former, you would:
Oftentimes the mental hurdle is that my product isn't good enough when in reality it is, it's just not as good as you want it.
Good thoughts, and thanks for the comment!
I used to think like this for the first one or two products that I launched but I ended up wasting major time on something that nobody really cared about.
Since writing that lesson in my own blood I always try to be very conscious of this bias.
It's though but it's well worth asking yourself why you're delaying launch exactly.
This part "it's just not as good as you want it" really resonated with me. I have hight expectations of what I want, but I think like you said in your 4 points iteration happens faster because of getting customers in the door.
Glad it was thought provoking! Are you working on anything at the moment?
Yeah, I'm actually working on two things at the moment. Catly (A inventory/catalog system for resellers) and a Streetwear submission site to tag your items of clothing and link to where you got them. The streetwear one is funner, and am planning to make it open source, so hoping I can garner a community to keep it alive, and focus my business on Catly.
Very well put @kylekrzeski !
I struggled with exactly this when launching GrowthHunt but the story of how this founder launched and got paying customers with just a landing page to validate his Bone Broths business inspired me.
I think having that mentality of "my product isn't good enough when in reality it is" is true and good in a sense; allow your targer customers in to help you shape it to a product they will pay and use.
This was a good post. I'm running an Early Access for 1 of my side projects as well, but only because I know it's not completely ready. So I've broken out the work into sections (testing phases) to get feedback on concentrated parts.
Oh nice! Is this for Funmetric? Sounds like a good idea!
Did you decide on specific sections or how did you decide which things to get concentrated feedback on?
Yes for Funmetric.
As for the breakdown, I based it on the core features of the product that is part of the retention loop. If it fails to hold their attention for a certain period of time I need to look at what I'm doing wrong and usually ask the early access group what "how they feel it" using the product.
My goal is 5-10 minutes a day using the product.
P.S.
Your other post about "Explainer Videos" is spot on, especially if the product may contain many layers.
Hey @sodux, I think you are on the right track here.
Keeping your users engaged is usually the key to conversion later on.
Happy to help you with your launch as I've got some case studies from my database that would you can learn from.
When I get to that next part of the development chain. I'll check growthhunt.co, thanks.
Thanks for this Kyle, super helpful for me as I am wanting to release our product end of this month or early August. The team and i have been toying with the idea for months but finally decided that we will work on the MVP a little more. We felt its the right time cause : 1. the customer will be able to fulfil more tasks, we have enough merchants and we got in a little more funding to boost our marketing campaigns :). Again thanks for the read.
Hey, just saw Reka, found the concept very interesting. If you don't mind me asking - What kind of preparation did you need to get funding for Reka?
Hi :), we needed to show proof of willing merchants and the minimal subscription fee. Still havent raised all the funds we need but we move slowly and keep developing. hope this helps...
Glad you found it helpful. All the best!