Customer Engagement 2 min read
The fallacy of funnels
The funnel is a lousy metaphor for measuring conversion. In real life, funnels let everything pass through–a 100% conversion rate…
Des Traynor
Latest posts by Des Traynor
Product & Design 6 min read
What you should know about private betas
Private betas are great for controlling access to a product as you tweak it. They work best when your product…
Product & Design 9 min read
Interview: Bob Moesta (Part 2 of 2)
The second part of our interview with Bob Moesta discusses topics specific to start-ups. We look at how a start-up…
Product & Design 1 min listen
Interview: Bob Moesta (Part 1 of 2)
For your product to succeed, you have to understand the mechanisms of value. What’s valuable, and when? A recent post…
Design and Premature Optimization
Grandma’s rule has a common meaning across countries & cultures. At a simple level it’s usually understood as “eat your…
Product & Design 2 min read
Copy the Fit, not the Features
The world of start-ups is obsessed with outliers. Companies who have achieved remarkable success through a combination of their activities….
Product & Design 4 min read
Sustainable advantages for startups
In Gimmicks and Patterns I wrote that new features either become table stakes, or are dismissed as being gimmicky. As…
Product & Design 5 min read
5 ways to improve the app store for customers
As the music companies found out, distribution is about ease of use. Actions that make products harder to buy and…
Product & Design 6 min read
Focus on the job, not the customer
Personas are a tool for sharing a common vision of a target user with everyone on a project. When everyone…