1. Partnering with
customers FTW
@lizprc
Lessons Learned in 5 Years of Bootstrapping
Liz Pearce, CEO

2. Online Project Management
Seattle-based start-up
1200 Customers
50 Countries
20 People
Profitable
Key challenges
• Complicated product objectives
• Radically different approach
• High expectations
2

3. Bad service sucks... but you knew that
3

4. Listening is not easy
Excuses Hall of Fame
We’re Rock Stars No Time Customers Don’t Understand

5. Good local role models
Audaciously High Bar
Same Treatment Free or Paid Big or Small
5

6. Practice
Every contact
Thorough Helpful Transparent
gets a response
Not directly Think Think Think
profitable Marketing Research Goodwill
6

7. + Feedback
+
 Improvements
 Happy Customers
+  Retention
 Growth
The Cycle
Get it revved up and
established as part of
the culture of your  Rinse, repeat
organization
7

8. How to make it a habit

9. A bump in the road story,
Like a ghost story but scarier
LP2
LP3
9

10. LP2
1. Identified customer "education" problem
2. Deep dive research project (40+ in-depth interviews)
3. Made assertion that architectural complexity would LP3
ultimately hurt the business
4. Spent 9 months designing, vetting, and building a solution
5. Spent 2 months in customer previews, beta program, and
one-on-one reviews
6. Rolled out a new product with extensive customer care infrastructure
7. Achieved higher growth than ever
10

11. Big payoff from listening to customers
11

12. Pitfalls
Undercounting people who
Being blinded by data
talk with their feet
Separating the wheat
Not reading between the lines
from the chaff
12

13. Don’t wait
LP3 LP4 for trouble
Customers want a thousand
things, but they mostly want “easy”
13

14. Re-invest in existing features LP4
Example: Project creation benchmark
70 6 200
180
60
5
160
50 140
4
120
40
3 100
30
80
2
20 60
40
1
10
20
0 0 0
Clicks Total Minutes Mouse Inches
LP3 LP4 LP3 LP4 LP3 LP4
38% Improvement 60% Improvement 30% Improvement

15. Want to win?
Habits of Great Teams
Always be learning Make time, not excuses Customers are the rock stars