Making the switch from building to marketing

New features never end, there is always something you just “have” to implement. If the core functions that will get users to pay for your product are in place ….focus on marketing and get first paying costumers and ask what they want to see developed .

I have seen way too many clients go down the wrong road here.

You have a stable product — now grow it. You won't really know what features are actually needed until you have a lot of users.

In the meantime, keep track of the feature requests and tally them up so that you know which ones are actually important.

for those that love to add features, keep in mind that one study found that customers were willing to pay 36.7% more for a product when only the best features were displayed. As it turns out, the overall perceived value is often diluted by good features when they're showcased alongside excellent ones.

You should remove the 'leaderboard' on your site as it just shows people losing money...or call it the loserboard 😛

I think you should do what you're saying, and do both things! Maybe split your time literally 50:50 and see how that works out. I'm currently doing this with Squeaky and whilst it can be quite hectic with all the context switching it has proved beneficial so far...and like most people I waited too long to do any marketing!

Usually, the answer is marketing, and if you have already an MVP I tend to agree.

Congratulations on the launch. These are amazing stats for Week 1. It's true that communicating with people on your mailing list or social media helps build loyalty and reminds them to take a look at your tool once it's out. Also, an annual plan is a great way to create stable revenue streams and build long-term relationships with users. Considering how expensive acquisition is, focusing on retention is a must-have.

One idea is to go forward with the marketing aspect and in the meantime also add a product roadmap and let users know what's on the horizon. Just make sure what you're promising is feasible within the next couple of months.

Great points. Totally agree. Keep it simple; once you find a solution that really scratches an itch, see how many more people have the same itch. Some good advice I received was to become obsessed with the problem and the people that have it.

Learn their motivations and experiences with the problem and tailor your product and copy to what they need and want.

I agree that it should be a mix. I know of a lot of people who block it out — one week of building, one week for marketing, and repeat. Or some similar cadence.

But don't multi-task. Studies show it doesn't work. That's why blocking out time for each is so important.

I’m struggling with finding that balance right now as well. One thing I’ve noticed after trying over the past 6 months is that, as a developer, 30 minutes of marketing feels like 5 brutal hours and 5 hours of development feels like a calm 30 minutes. So if you’re trying to strike a balance make sure you take your skills and cognitive bias into account otherwise you’ll trick yourself into doing what you like and avoiding what you don’t- like humans do!

You can also do marketing before building.

1. Make a landing page about the future. Describe it with a few sentences
2. Show it to existing customers/new people
3. See the response

follow the money! put a price tag on features and ask your customers if they would be willing to pay for these new features if you get sizable votes continue adding those features else it is not going to bring additional revenue so put dev on second priority and marketing as first priority[1].

[1]: wasted countless hours on developing features for product that never saw light of day because nobody bought it :)

Hi Michael,
Recently I've watched a YT video from the Bannerbear startup founder, when he described his journey to 1M ARR, and mentioned that he is switching context between MKT and DEV in a weekly basis. Maybe you can adapt this routine to better suit your needs...
Personally, I think MKT is more like a marathone, you have to plant the seeds now, specially if you are planning to grow organically, but I'm lagging behind it and focusing on implementing core functionalities...
The video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIqh3AfITdQ

I was focused on dev and training juniors. Now, I am learning more and more marketing. I get some work done through fiverr & upwork with little more experienced engineers.
My experience w.r.t marketing is do not outsource. Learn your self seo and content writing.

Maintain a bug list. Maintain a feature wish list. Review the lists regularly, every 3 months maybe, or every year. Prioritise the top few bugs and features. Fix/implement them in one go.

When someone sends you a bug or feature request, thank them and tell them it has been added to the list for review.

What are your marketing goals? Can you hit your next milestone on time with 30 minutes a day or do you need 6 hours? Marketing, especially guerrilla marketing, can be very easy to do using small chunks of time.

It is about maintaining a balance.
From what I have seen, Sooner or later, there will come a time when you will be more focused on marketing and delegating development work.
Happened to me when I transitioned from software development to marketing in 2016 and have seen many seniors of mine go through the same.

Just had a bit of a play around with it.

I don't really know blackjack rules, so I thought maybe I could provide some fresh eyed feedback on it for you.

Didn't figure out what split or double options were and not in the rules page.

If the dealer gets 21 on the first go then the player looses message comes up before the animation of dealing the cards is done.

If I was on a $50 bet and got down to $25 left in the pot, I get an error 500 on rebet, and then it kicks me out to the main screen, but still has $50 bet as the selected option.