Fred Wilson [ http://www.quora.com/Fr... by Babak Nivi - Quora

Early in a startup, product decisions should be hunch driven. Later on, product decisions should be data driven.
Agree. But the best stuff is ALWAYS hunch driven and that doesn't really change (tweaks can be data driven). So for me it depends on what he ment about "Later on, product decisions..." new products or changes...

 

Hunches come from being a power user of the products in your category and from having a long standing obsession about the problem you are solving.
Eh, not so much...  Did Larry and Sergey share a premium AltaVista account? Did Zuckerberg have the most friends on his Friendster profile? Did Jason Fried use a ton of enterprise colab software before Basecamp?

 

Domain expertise to the point of obsession is highly correlated with the most successful entrepeneurs in our portfolio.
Agree...(some of this can be attained with some months of deep thought and exploration/talk to some users).

 

Ideas that most people derided as ridiculous have produced the best outcomes. Don't do the obvious thing.
AGREE.

 

Monetization should be native and improve the experience for users.
YA...AGREE. (But there are lots and lots of businesses that charge for their product and make out great so that is not "non-native" in all cases...it IS in some though).

Michael LevySun Feb 20 2011 05:30:24 GMT+0000 (GMT Standard Time)

Good thoughts to consider in product design...