Michael Seibel - Building Product 

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro 00:53 - JustinTV (Twitch now) make a lot of mistakes but the things that allowed them to survive 03:50 - What problem are you solving? 05:31 - Can you state the problem clearly? 05:45 - Have you experienced it yourself? 06:12 - Can you define your problem narrowly? 07:02 - Is the problem solvable? 10:11 - Who is your customer? 10:23 - Everyone? (no!) 11:30 - How often do they have the problem? 13:50 - How intense is the problem? 15:07 - Are they willing to pay? 17:05 - How easy are they to find? 18:39 - Does your MVP actually solve the problem? 21:10 - Which customers should you go after first? (the easy ones!) 24:25 - Which customers should you run away from? (the hard ones!) 25:46 - Should you discount or start with a super low price? (no!) 27:58 - How to setup metrics 28:15 - Google Analytics + Something else 29:36 - Pick 5-10 important stats 31:13 - Make measurements a part of product spec 32:02 - Product Development Cycle (v1) 36:11 - KPI Goal 37:52 - Brainstorm 39:01 - Easy/Medium/Hard 40:50 - Decide 41:35 - Written Spec 43:44 - Pivot vs Iterate 44:43 - Pivot = Changing the customer and/or changing the problem (rare) 44:59 - Iterate = changing the solution (common) 46:09 - Fake Steve Jobs vs Real Steve Jobs (how not to be a product dictator) 48:04 - Summary - Find the right customers, ask specific what they want, and make it. 51:06 - Question 1 - Should you be going free if the final idea for the product is to be free? 52:27 - Question 2 - KPI is revenue and the number is zero, should you still be tracking that as your top line KPI? 53:50 - Question 3 - Hardware company pre-launch pre-sales tips? 54:29 - Question 4 - Hardest part of having a slow burn? 55:26 - Question 5 - Beta to early MVP? 56:51 - Question 6 - How do one figure out what feature to build next? 58:09 - Outro

I'm a products person. And I spent countless hours researching about how to make my process better. And this video has been one of the most brilliantly put together pieces of content on product delivery I've seen.

1. Need to first resolve what the pain you’re solving. Can you state the problem plainly in one or two sentences. 2. Is it a problem you’ve experienced yourself? 3. Can you define the problem narrowly, immediately. 4. Is the problem solvable? 5. Who is your customer? You have to focus on an ideal initial loser/early adopter. 6. How often does your user have the problem? Who’s getting the most value? It helps to have a problem that people use frequently. 7. How intense is the problem? 8. Are they willing to pay? Sometimes it’s better to make the product harder to use to see if it’s an intense enough problem or not. Don’t start free. Charge a price and a good price. 9. How easy are your customers to find? 10. Does your MVP solve the problem you designed it to? 11. Which customers should you go after first? Don’t just go after the hardest ones. With MVP, find people desperate enough to use a bad product? (Maybe people at stores already). How do you find people who desperately need your app? Ignore investors of friends to ask these questions. Once you have customers it’s good to identify bad customers who are toxic and have unrealistic expectations. Some exploit in bad faith. 12. Don’t discount unless it’s a way to speed up a sale. 13. Set up metrics. Don’t use Google analytics. It’s important so you know if your products is. Wing used or not. Doesn’t tell you how long people used each item on your page. It’s good to have a highly technical team to use Mix Panel. Pick 5-10 simple stats at the beginning. 14. Make measurement a part of your product spec. Building measurement are a part of your product spec as part of first release. 15. Product development cycle: (v1) A. KPI-Track revenue if you charge customers or usage if not. B. BRAINSTORM-any idea is written in the board. Lots of value in seeing idea in writing. C. Iterate and talk to customers to see what they like to improve your product. C. Do hard first, medium, then hard. D. Written spec-write down what you mean by every step and how it’s gonna work. Michael@Ycombinator.com

"You don't understand the problem you're solving, until you understand the person you're solving it for." Michael 10:15 That's powerful!

There are times when you think YC's program is very competitive and overrated, now I know the incredible value that folks like Micheal Siebel add to YC startups. This is absolutely gold!

I've met Micheal during the Startup School Beijing in May 2018. I was impressed by his modesty and humanity. Thanks to his tips, I'm finally managing to achieve product-market fit!

When I finished watching this I watched it again just to make sure I didn't miss anything. I can think of no higher compliment.

Thank you, Michael Seibel and Y Combinator. This video has great practical, no-nonsense, and direct insights for Product builders.

This is hands down one of if not the best recorded advice for start-ups. So glad I found this. Thanks for making it accessible.

Simple one of the greatest lectures I’ve seen! Thanks!

Fantastic talk; clear, concise, humble, wise. A gift!

YC videos are GOLD for startups and the application itself is a great questionnaire to analyse your startup.

Thank you Michael and Y Combinator for this talk. Was so amazing, down to earth, super practical. Greetings from Mexico 🇲🇽

This is the best talk I have ever listened about product development. Love it

This is one of the best videos for startups in RU-vid. Michael knows exactly what he is talking about!

Thanks Mike for sharing your knowledge and I found it especially valuable as we're also building something for the eSport and Gamer community. And I will definitely email you, it's very rare people actually guarantee they write you back! Again, thanks so much.

This is awesome - what a great talk. Instead of continuing to be baited into arguments about whether or not the problem is the super crucial thing, I can now send people this video. Thank you!

This gets me so excited to continue!! This put the battery back in my back! 🔋

All the time i was watching this video, i was admiring him. he is an amazing man.

Michael Seibel is one of my favourite so far in YCSS 2018. Thank you

This is gold. Thank you Michael and YC crew! You made my day 😊

I doubt there is another video on RU-vid that is so actionable and helpful for startups in 2018. Thank you!

I have learned a lot from this talk it blows my mind.

‘This guy has such incredible insight but able to tell his story in such a clear way . Thank you 😊

I really liked that talk. After being 4 years into my startup I learned to start any new business like that.

Great video with tons of advice. As a college student, this video really got my gears turning and provides more structure to the process of founding a startup.

Almost half way through this and have to say this is the most practical lecture I've ever watched on building a product.

It's amazing how common sensical this is. But the beauty is in asking the right questions so it seems simple.

The fact that he’s explaining what to track after you build means that this is all very new!

I’m so thankful you create this content and are intensely blunt. My startup is just turning to success and these lessons all ring true for me. Keep it up and helping people improve their lives.

Awesome. You're fantastic dude. Thank you. Have taken away some real lessons I'm going to effect in my start up tomorrow! Thank you!

Such a great vid and Michael drop some serious knowledge in this!

Overused expression these days, but this is gold. The way he just iterates over the definitive list of criteria and checkboxes for the first 20 minutes seems very experiential and wise.

Thank you for this video. The information was presented clearly and I learned a lot. Keep up the good work!

This really helped me think through my product. Thanks Michael.

God bless this guy. He was so fun, educating and entertaining.

Fantastic talk. Nothing better than learning about building product from those who’ve lived it.

YC is my favorite. I don't know how I never knew about it all along. People pay a lot of money for this information. Thank you very much for this YC.

This content is pure gold. I can't stress that enough.

The whole 1hr was very valuable! love to hear with so good ending! words were like 1 hour & even refreshments at the end.

I got a degree in business and entrepreneurship and learned more in this talk. Listen to this 5x and start creating 💪🏾

Outstanding summary of the process. Very glad that I found it.

This is pure gold. I love Michael.

Actionable & amazing advices for tech entrepreneurs. Thank you Michael!

Wow, this was a great talk! Thanks Michael!

Best business talk for entrepreneurs I have heard on RU-vid yet. Respect.

Truest words! Michael's advice is pure gold.

gonna watch this a couple of times more, so many useful info condensed in 1 hr

Good talk! One comment about the KPI goal: One former founder current investor told us to track the rate of user problems solved. Usually this is then related to the revenue model in place. It has been a fantastic advice.

The observations in the talk are so obvious that they are brilliant. Seek the most simple, objective path and rely on users that need your product for their company to survive, talk to them, focus on delivering value.

Truly inspiring and educational. Thanks so much

Note to anyone reading: Watch twice & make notes the second time round. Come back to this video again & again if you're stuck or confused getting product-market fit or in the middle of a pivot.

Great lecture. Extremely valuable information. Building a product is complicated and I love how Michael simplifies the process. Example at 56:05 regarding beta/ launching. Michael : "Are people using your product?" New founder: " Yes." Michael :" Great! Bam, your launched! Congratulations."

Thanks a bunch for this video! This is really great and insightful! :)

One of the best videos on Product. I am a huge Steve Jobs fan and I have to say Michael is probably the next best Product guy after him.

What a video! Crisp, credible and enriching... 🙏🙏

This man is easily the best communicator I've come across in a long time. He says things so precisely, and his use of concrete examples really helps me understand. I'm only a few minutes into his talk and the thing about babysitters isn't something I can say I've appreciated. Sure, I've thought about how my tech-in-development might work in different markets one day, but his exercise of narrowing your first market to see if the problem you're trying to address is even solvable was so eye opening. Anyway, time to unpause and get back to this amazing learning experience! If I apply to YC, it's because of Micheal Seibel (i.e. to get closer to people with that kind of wisdom).

Supremely helpful. Thanks Micheal, if you're reading this! :)

i had to listen to that first bit over again... incredible. Tied to Ego - Can't Quit. Cheap - blow minimum wage. Highly Technical.

Fantastic!!!! What a great talk. Thank you for sharing your valuable experience.

Now it's the real stuff. The secret weapon of YC.

Enjoyed the video. Video provides good baseline to start working on a product. Thank you.

I have just shared this video with my co-founders and all other colleagues. Tomorrow we shall watch it together as a team.

So much amazing insight in one video!! A must watch for all startup founders.

excellent talk and great delivery! spot on!

I think your videos are realy great and I can learn a lot of realy valuable practical stuff from it. Thank you very much for making these videos! Thank You!

Really great content, YCombinator congratulations on publishing such rich content for us! 👍👍🎉

I think that I am going to have to watch this several times - very potent

Thanks for the upload, as an aspiring innovator with a few projects aligned. This was helpful. Thank you once again. Cheers.

Every young entrepreneur must watch this at least once. Twice is ever better !

Absolute Gold. Connected with it really well. 🙏🏽🙏🏽

Wow! Thanks for this Michael. I feel a bit like you've picked on things we have really battled with

21:10 is gold. When you're testing out your MVP (as I am now), you don't want users who only kind of like your product. Go for the easiest customers, meaning people who show that they want what you're selling them. These people will be your early adopters. A good indicator of whether people want what you're selling them is if they're using your product and paying you.

Single best YC vid. Contains most of the content covered in the others

Excellent ideas. Extremely useful for me as a start-up founder.

I absolutely love how raw you kept it in this talk. Figure out what problem you are solving and who you are solving it for. Listen to them. Iterate until your KPIs are moving in the right direction. Thanks for sharing this.

Clear thinker and communicator.

a magical presentation, a talented presenter. thank you sincerely Michael. You are awesome

One of coolest videos for startups by far

Great advice. Clarified a lot of effective action steps. Thank you.

This video is a gem. It's incredible how clear and simple the explanation of the dev cycle process is. And how it looks efficient, without never mentioning any of those words : "agile", "scrum", "sprint", "planning", "complexity", "fibonacci", "post-it"... Another proof that these words (and the associated rituals) are from penpushers and a complete waste of time 😅.

“The things that allowed us to survive was that our founding team was extremely technical.” 31:13 “make measurement a part of your product spec”

Full of great content, must watch for start-up founders

Amazing talk! Learned a lot!

Awesome dude and a great presentation!

Very good advice. Thank you for sharing this information.

Love it, thanks Michael.

Startup Gold. Thanks, Michael. You are AWESOME!

Great talk

Wow. I run an accelerator for early stage scalable companies and this is on point. Definitely soaking this up and passing it along!

What an amazing talk! Among the best of y combinator

Absolutely one of the best talks, thanks!

Such value in this talk

he is one of my favorites

so glad i found this video

A down to earth coneseur of the tech world who actually makes sense, so you can put him close to people who want to actually learn something in the realm of Suckerbergs

excellente advise... If you want to start up a commpany...watch this!

Thank you for sharing these valuable insights

Absolutely amazing insights. Car website example is truly brilliant.

Thanks a lot Michael & Y Combinator