How to get users to actually sign up for your service. Lessons learned from designing at Pinterest and Gumroad. Why good product design is the best for growth hacking. How to give your products a point of view, a voice, human elements etc. that lead to engaged users and success. Sahil Lavingia – Founder & CEO, Gumroad

1. Building products
that solve problems.

2. Picture
Sahil Lavingia

3. I like to make stuff.

4. Typically, software.
This means I had to learn to design
and code.

5. I made stuff for others.
I was a “service provider.”
Services don’t scale.

6. I made stuff for myself.
I was a “product provider.”
Products do scale.

7. I went to school, and left.
I joined a small company of three.
It was called Pinterest.

9. Then I started a company.
A “company.” It’s called Gumroad.

10. First, a couple of things.

11. I was never very good.
As an engineer or a designer, really. I just
wanted these things to exist. A lot.

12. At least, not for a while.
It took me years to get “good” at design,
or engineering. Or product!

13. You solve a hundred problems.
And you slowly get good. Really good. Or at least,
fast.

14. Intuition is bullshit.
Try a lot of things, and you learn a lot of things.
Experience leads to being “smart.”

15. Nothing is more important than
just building.
And learning.

16. Gumroad lets you sell
directly to your audience.
The way that you want.

18. On your own website.

19. Powerful tools / analytics.

21. We take 5% + 25¢. That’s it.

22. We empower creators.
We make existing ones better,
and make more of them.

23. This talk is about building
products to solve problems.

24. How to very quickly build a software product
to solve a problem at scale, now.
More specifically...

25. I think it's reached that - buzzword
alert! - MVP stage where I want to
see if anyone's actually going to use
the darn thing.
my Hacker News comment | Day of launch

26. I think it has some potential. What
do you guys think?
my Hacker News comment | Day of launch

27. Not about building a company.

28. Just solving one problem, today.

29. Focus.

30. Outsource everything
that you can.

31. Solve just one problem.

32. Say “not for me.” Or at least,
“not for now.”

33. Move.

34. Spend the time. Most of your time.

35. Launch as soon as you can.

36. Launch again, as soon as you can.

37. Try things out. Quickly.

38. Usage is like oxygen for ideas.

39. Have faith.

40. Believe in your assumption(s).

41. Have trust in your customers.

42. Believe in the future you
are working towards.

43. There is nothing more powerful
than an idea whose time
has come.

44. Be patient.

45. Some real tips.

46. DRY everything.

47. Remove steps for your users.

48. Make your product smart.

49. Make your users smart.

50. Provide immediate value.

51. Focus on the solo experience.

52. Make it human.

53. Have a point of view.

54. Automate everything that
can be automated.

55. Focus on the solo experience.

56. Focus on today, not tomorrow.

57. Remove the current
bottleneck.

58. Remove choice.

59. Forget about data.

60. Smile and have fun.

61. Thank you.

62. s@gumroad.com - @shl