Interview, Fireside Chat
Users You Don't Want by Michael Seibel
- Unintended product usage by users who generate neither short-term nor long-term value is predicted to actively decrease network value and harm the business if identified as "hijack" users.
- Startups face a high probability of difficulty in recognizing and removing users who generate no value, with failure to do so resulting in net negative business impact.
- Users consuming significant customer support resources are deemed unjustified in that allocation if the product is free and the company fails to derive learning from the interaction; conversely, users covering their support costs via revenue may be retained unless they trigger illegal activities, police involvement, or reputation damage.
- Accommodating all user types and allowing unfiltered user influence on the product roadmap is expected to cause startups to perform poorly on half of many problems, whereas focusing on one core problem is predicted to satisfy a small number of users exceptionally well.
- Product builders are expected to struggle without holding strong opinions on intended use cases, as allowing the market to dictate direction entirely or letting hijack users steer the roadmap will lead to ineffective product development; experimentation with divergent use cases is considered acceptable only if it does not control the roadmap.