Hurt My Feelings...Please

Wouldn’t it be nice if a great wedding meant a great marriage?  Oh…life would be so easy.  You could just hire the best party planner, invest all of your savings and would be assured a lifetime of happiness.  Bummer that’s not true.  As we all know, a good marriage requires a lot of work.  To have a long-term, happy relationship with one person takes listening, ongoing communication, objective self-reflection and personal adjustments.

I think product launches/ongoing business success is analogous to weddings/marriages.  Based on anecdotal evidence, I believe that there is a low correlation between a successful launch and long-term product/business success.  So low that I think that too much emphasis is often put on a start-up’s “launch”.

Of course, I am not suggesting that positive buzz and free press aren’t a good thing…they are!  What I am suggesting however, is that the emphasis placed on launch is too often overweighted relative to its long-term business value.  Releasing your product to the web is like a wedding, it is just the beginning of the work.  In today’s highly connected, social world, great products can spread very quickly.  And since start-ups never have a great product at their initial launch, they often get very little bang for the launch buck.  The emphasis of a start-up should be on building a great product and that takes listening to your users, objective self-reflection and continuous adjustments…just like a marriage.

To that end…I need your help.

Please try out my product, Irrive.com [<<< click on this link to get past private gate].  Tell me what you think by sending me an email, steven@irrive.com.  Don’t hold back.  I have very thick skin.  Just keep it constructive.  Tell me how to make the product better for you.  What is confusing?  What is a useless feature?  What features would make your life easier?  I am ready to listen, reflect and adjust.

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