Creating products that stick (and how to do it)

The idea is to initially attract users with a single-player tool and then, over time, get them to participate in a network. The tool helps get to initial critical mass. The network creates the long term value for users, and defensibility for the company.

Today’s social startups don’t start off as networks. They start off as standalone apps. These products enable users to create a corpus of content first. They then connect the users with each other as a consequence of sharing that content.

Quite simply, it means that the default state of a product - including the default settings for notifications, the onboarding experience, the welcome message you get etc - determine the product’s fate. It’s the only portion of the product that EVERY user experiences, and it sets the bit for every behavior.