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How to do product discovery

Startup leaders are often performing so many functions that are new to them that they don’t realize many of these functions have proven methodologies. One example I see often: product discovery. How do you know which problems you can solve for your users? Teresa Torres is one of the leading voices in product discovery, and this is her post on the basics.

Don’t prioritize

Have you ever felt, at the end of a prioritization exercise, that you and your team still have too much to get done? This could be because you’re not being specific enough in your prioritization. One simple way to be more effective, writes Johanna Rothman: focus instead on rank ordering your tasks.

Call your agent

If you feel like you’re struggling to keep up with the dizzyingly rapid pace of AI tooling innovation, well, that makes two of us. AI agents are supposedly the mechanism that will consume and supplant the SaaS model. And like many hyped up innovations, it’s hard to nail down a definition. Here’s a good piece trying to do just that from Mark Purdy and HBR.

Buy, don’t build

Last week, I wrote about how AI coding is complicating what used to be simpler ‘build vs buy’ decisions by making it far easier than ever before to build custom tools. CJ Gustafson would probably tell you that even if it takes you just a few minutes to make a custom CRM, it’s still generally a bad idea to build your own (unless your business builds custom CRMs as its product.)

Layoffs are worse than you think

Aside from all the obvious reasons layoffs are bad, companies that repeatedly use them to prune the ranks tend to perform worse than those that don’t says Mark Dent. Even if the business fundamentals are solid and a layoff is just to lose underperformers, they’re terrible for morale and employee retention, and also hurt your ability to hire. The cure? Don’t treat employees as interchangeable parts, hire only when you’re sure you need the position, and improve your hiring processes to ensure you’re getting the right talent for your team.

Hire people who do the work

“Most meaningful projects at any company are done by a small group of people while everyone else does busy work (or literally nothing).” I’ve found this statement from Carter Mark and Jordan Gonen to be generally true. The trick for any startup leader is to make sure you’re hiring, and promoting, the people who drive results. How can you tell who they are? Check the post for some ideas.

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Six for Startups is compiled each week by me, Isaac Krasny. I’m a veteran startup product leader, founder, & CPO. I’m currently the product advisor for the GrowthCraft Startup Community and a coach and consultant helping guide founders to product-market fit.