{11} Suggestion Box, Hierarchy & Permanence

Featuring Rodrigo 'Rolo' Ortiz, Allison Esposito Medina, and Fred

Chat #1: Rodrigo 'Rolo' Ortiz

From bored lawyer to indie hacker. Tweeting about my journey scaling digital products.

Rodrigo 'Rolo' Ortiz:
Question to tech twitter 👀

As a user, do you find it easy to leave bug reports/suggestions on products?

Dane Lyons:
Absolutely not. The only reliable way to leave a suggestion on a product is to Tweet it, which often comes off as more bitter than helpful.

I'd love to see a better solution.

Rodrigo 'Rolo' Ortiz:
Yeah same here, most places don't give you a place to add feedback, and when they do it's pretty uninviting.

Would leaving a comment like a sticky note on the website be something you find easy/comfortable?

Dane Lyons:
I'd love to leave sticky notes on a website! Are you thinking about building a browser extension?

Rodrigo 'Rolo' Ortiz:
Yes sir! Launching in a couple of days. It's an SDK that you can add into your product with one line of code, to gather visual feedback and make it easier for your users.

I can let you know if you're interested!

Dane Lyons:
Congrats! I'd be happy to see what you're building and give feedback.

Notes could be helpful for more than the product team working on the app. If I'm using an app and run into a roadblock or find messaging confusing, it would be great to see other user notes.

Rodrigo 'Rolo' Ortiz:
Awesome, thanks Dane! I'll let you know as soon as we launch.

I think you're reading my mind, that collaborative aspect is something we see a lot of value in too. For users to see the product is active, and for the developers to understand what to prioritize through upvotes.

Dane Lyons:
Looking forward to it! It's a problem I've invested some time thinking about. We started an annotations project at @hackernoon, which was more focused on writing than feedback. But there are a lot of parallels.

Rodrigo 'Rolo' Ortiz:
Sounds good!

Oh interesting, makes sense for that use case too. Checking out your blog, really interesting 👀

Conclusion:
Existing feedback tools are uninviting. And most users lack the interface vocabulary to accurately describe the interactions they find frustrating. It’s not their fault. User interfaces aren’t taught in grade school, at least not where I live.

App developers need to take inspiration from doctors. If you go to the doctor with elbow pain, they don’t expect you to say you have pain in your radio humeral joint. They’ll start by asking “Where does it hurt?”. Then they’ll figure it out based on where you point.

That’s what I believe Rodrigo is solving with his sticky note solution. By giving users a tool to slap sticky notes on an app, you bypass the “where” and allow people to focus on the “what”.

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Chat #2: Allison Esposito Medina

Sharing how to bootstrap your startup! Sign up for free @ growwithallison.com ✌️ Founder @jointechladies, the largest community of women in tech :)

Allison Esposito Medina:
Toxic management often comes from the outdated idea of a hierarchy at work.

If you can break away from this mentality and treat your team members as equals, you'll be amazed at how much you'll all get done.

Dane Lyons:
It's frustrating that people derive their own self-worth from the amount of other people's time they control.

How can we break that mentality?

Allison Esposito Medina:
That's a loser mentality for sure. I think if we keep writing about why it doesn't work, that could help people understand.

Dane Lyons:
Words are powerful. I think it's also important to have something more substantial to accompany the theory. If a no-hierarchy company is successful, we should tell that story. People often need validation to make a fundamental change.

Conclusion:
Evy and I have planned to write a book for years called The Anarchist and the Dictator. We want to explore alternative ways to build things. What happens if organizations radically rethink hierarchy/management? Can we be happier and accomplish more with less stress?

This quick chat with Allison has me thinking about a new format. Each chapter could be a success or failure story from a team with a different approach. One chapter might be dedicated to an open source project, the next may follow a DAO.

I believe the book would cover more ground and feel more concrete than something purely theoretical.

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Chat #3: Fred

Serial solopreneur and new on twitter. 5 companies started, 3 failed, 2 succeeded. Now sharing progress of my new startup Beep - justbeepit.com

Fred:
What do you think is more important to beat competition? 👇

a. Better product
b. Better marketing

Dane Lyons:
I'd go with a better product. You can always be experimental with marketing to see what resonates with people. But if the underlying product isn't great, it's hard to make it up with marketing.

Fred:
You can't promote a poor product. But it will also be hard reach any milestones without good marketing.

Dane Lyons:
Right. I'd just say nothing is permanent. You can fix a bad product or bad marketing. I'd just rather start with a good product foundation.

Fred:
I do agree regarding the foundation. It doesn't need to be perfect but it needs to be a at least a good product to start with.

Conclusion:
Nothing is permanent. If your product or marketing isn’t working, change it.

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