Losing your early users as you build
I've noticed that a big problem I have is not talking to users consistently, including potential users. I often find myself repeating the following scenario:
- I talk to someone to do the "initial pitch" - I tell them about the problem which I'm looking to solve, and find some enthusiasm (sometimes mild, sometimes great) for the solution I'm building
- I promise to stay in touch, and show them the solution once it's "ready"
- I continue building
- At this point, either I have strayed slightly from the original solution, or I have a buggy initial solution but I still continue building (a product is never done right?)
- In the meantime, I never talk again to those potential users
Occasionally, the scenario is slightly modified:
- I will have just released a rough version of my solution
- I happen to talk to someone right around then (to do the "initial pitch" and they're interested in trying it
- I suggest to them I'll try and connect with them again after they've tried it to get feedback
- They try it out after our conversation, then leave
- I never talk again to these users
Do other people have this problem of not following through with early users?
In order to help me follow through with talking to the users again, I started building a simple tool. It's a daily check-in which reminds me to log my product development journey. The idea is for me to log daily (or every few days), writing down what I worked on. The tool collects the log entries into weekly batch updates, and sends it to a group of early users. So instead of never talking to my early users again, I can add them to a group who will receive weekly (or monthly) updates on my journey.
Would weekly updates be a good way to start a conversation with your users?
What other tools/solutions do people use for this?
The simple tool I'm building for this is: https://logvana.com
