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Users You Don’t Want

themacro.com

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Re: Users You Don’t Want

#21

Post by mwseibel »

ryandrake wrote: post #16

Been through this at medium sized companies struggling to sell. This kind of customer is alluring but poisonous. Company: We sell Product X! Toxic Customer: I don't want Product X, I want Product Y. If you're willing to bolt Product Y onto one of your menus I will pay you this stack of money for it! Company: $$$! Bam! The company just went from being a product company to a custom engineering service. You will have to…

Yes! So many startups in YC encounter this exact problem in their early days...

Re: Users You Don’t Want

#22

Post by mwseibel »

peterhartree wrote: post #18
mwseibel wrote: post #2

Hey folks - slightly different piece today - trying to get away from investor/fundraising posts as of late. Would love your thoughts/comments/questions. I'll check in a couple times over the course of the day.

I enjoyed the piece, thanks Michael. Sorry for the boring feedback, but the post feels like it needs a bit more proofreading. Some of the syntax is a little confusing and I noticed a couple of definite typos: > So what should to you? Should be: > So what should you do? And: > Does this user represent an even better opportunity for you to grow your business. Should be: > Does this user represent an even better opportu…

thanks!

Re: Users You Don’t Want

#23

Post by sotojuan »

quwert95 wrote: post #13

>In the case of Justin.tv, pivoting to serve video gamers was the right move. Our video game broadcasters always represented a small but consistent group of users. It tooks us 4-5 years to realize how important they were. This stuck out at me as an avid Twitch user/follower (and sometimes a streamer). I think they need to re-realize this. The pivot result (extra effort and focus in Twitch) is being re-pivoted with th…

I think of those examples, social eating is the one pushing the limits :p

Re: Users You Don’t Want

#24

Post by pc86 »

ryandrake wrote: post #16

Been through this at medium sized companies struggling to sell. This kind of customer is alluring but poisonous. Company: We sell Product X! Toxic Customer: I don't want Product X, I want Product Y. If you're willing to bolt Product Y onto one of your menus I will pay you this stack of money for it! Company: $$$! Bam! The company just went from being a product company to a custom engineering service. You will have to…

I think 49.9% of executives agree with that and 90%+ of product people/developers agree with that too. The problem is that it's rarely X and Y. It's almost always justifiable, though. Imagine X=1 and Y=100.

If you sell 1 and a customer asks for 100 it's easy to say no. If they ask for 50 or 25 it's still easy.

The problem is when they ask for 2. Or 1.5, and are willing to pay big bucks to get it. It's hard to know whether your line should be at 2 or 20 or 80, especially when you can make business arguments for all of them and they all come with buckets of money attached.

Re: Users You Don’t Want

#26

Post by codegeek »

ryandrake wrote: post #16

Been through this at medium sized companies struggling to sell. This kind of customer is alluring but poisonous. Company: We sell Product X! Toxic Customer: I don't want Product X, I want Product Y. If you're willing to bolt Product Y onto one of your menus I will pay you this stack of money for it! Company: $$$! Bam! The company just went from being a product company to a custom engineering service. You will have to…

You literally explained the situation I find myself in with my bootstrapped company. I couldn't have explained it better.

Re: Users You Don’t Want

#27

Post by 6stringmerc »

So a variation of the 80/20 rule? 20% of your users/customers cause 80% of the headaches/effort that aren't productive? This does hash out some 'stock characters' like I was "taught to identify" at a certain blue and yellow colored big box, because we were supposed to target them to "meet their needs" - gamer, Mom, audiophile, etc.

I have a few qualms regarding the avenue Justin.tv took as used for an example, in that yes I'm sure 90% of the user-licenses allow for game broadcasting - claimed publicly[1] - but IP is a slippery issue and willful infringement is potentially quite costly. I'm a former gamer so I also have first-hand experience with, ahem, demands that gamers can sometimes put forward which may or may not be grounded in the reality of IP law. In other words, I'm pretty sure they got lucky with right-place-right-time-right-market which takes some sheen off the innovation, execution, etc type narrative.

[1] http://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/11/after-twitchs-music-copyright...

Re: Users You Don’t Want

#29

Post by mapgrep »

I feel like this point could have been made without referring to infants and developmentally disabled teenagers as "hijacker users."

I hate to moralize, but this essay helped me realize that there is, in fact, a baseline level of humanity we hold one another to in this community. And it is pretty inhumane to reduce the weakest members of society to mere obstacles to your business success. Choose another example and you will make your point more effectively.

Re: Users You Don’t Want

#30

Post by [deleted] »

ryandrake wrote: post #16

Been through this at medium sized companies struggling to sell. This kind of customer is alluring but poisonous. Company: We sell Product X! Toxic Customer: I don't want Product X, I want Product Y. If you're willing to bolt Product Y onto one of your menus I will pay you this stack of money for it! Company: $$$! Bam! The company just went from being a product company to a custom engineering service. You will have to…

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