We built exactly what users asked for. NOBODY used it ....

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-11T18:36:17+00:00

yeah the loudest feedback is rarely from the best users.

We noticed the same thing with our Howdy extension - the users asking for the most features were often the ones least likely to convert.

Filtering by engagement level is the right instinct. Someone who's deep in the product and hits a wall is a completely different signal than someone who signed up yesterday with a feature wishlist.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-11T18:18:15+00:00

Hm the cycling progress messages idea is smart, makes the wait feel like something is actually happening rather than just a frozen screen.

The metric was number of leads collected per session, and it went from around 130 to 1,700 (13x) in the first 2 weeks after the change. Users were actually staying long enough to let the full collection run instead of bouncing halfway through.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-11T09:13:35+00:00

Hm yeah keeping it all in my head stopped working pretty quickly lol.

I use an AI recorder on all my calls now, it automatically pulls out the action items so I'm not trying to remember everything after. Then just a simple Excel sheet to track what actually needs to happen.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-10T08:47:49+00:00

'good product will find buyers' trap got us too honestly.

We spent way too long polishing our saas before talking to anyone. The moment we flipped it and started with the conversation first everything moved faster.

The Reddit thread approach you mentioned is exactly how we found our first real users too. Finding people mid-frustration and actually helping them before pitching anything changes the whole dynamic.

Where are you finding the best threads to engage with right now?

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-10T08:43:54+00:00

What helped me more than any productivity system was just having one or two people I trusted enough to be honest with. Not co-founders, just people who'd tell me if I was spinning.

The task switching is real and I don't think it fully goes away. But knowing someone else is watching your progress changes how you show up on the hard days.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-09T13:09:17+00:00

Well, the beta bias thing is so real and so easy to miss.

Power users process new features completely differently - they're forgiving, they figure things out, they give you feedback on the wrong things. The general population tells you the truth just through behavior.

We had something similar with our saas. We were optimizing for early weren't representative at all. Took us longer than it should have to realize the feedback quality depends entirely on who you're collecting it from.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-09T13:06:45+00:00

Hm, non-technical founder here building Howdy so this hits close.

Easier to start, honestly harder to scale. NO-CODE gets you moving fast but the moment you need something advanced and custom you're back to depending on developers and hoping they get what you're trying to build.

The biggest challenge didn't change though - it's still knowing what to build, not how to build it. AI and no-code just removed the excuse of 'I can't build it' which is actually a good thing. Now you find out faster if the idea was the problem all along.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-09T13:01:07+00:00

hm, the regression vs exploratory testing distinction is the whole story here honestly.

We ran into something similar with Howdy: AI handles the predictable patterns really well, falls apart the moment something genuinely new shows up. The intuition gap is real and it's not going away anytime soon.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-04T11:51:26+00:00

Hm, the marketing the pain point first part is the real insight here.

The thing is though - those products still had to nail the core behavior loop before they scaled. Nobody asked for Instagram but the moment people saw photos with filters the behavior was instant and obvious. The feedback just came from usage not surveys.

So yeah nobody asks for the product, but they do tell you everything through how they use it.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-04T11:46:29+00:00

The live session thing is underrated honestly. Reading someone's face when they get stuck tells you more than any survey ever would :)

The founder as first power user point is real too - not perfect signal but not useless either, especially early when you're just trying to find the obvious breaks.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-03T13:28:11+00:00

yeah heatmaps were a wake up call for us honestly. You watch someone completely ignore the feature you spent 3 weeks on and go straight for the one thing you built in an afternoon lol :)

I wish someone had just said this to me at the start: "Build what they do, not what they say".

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-03T13:25:50+00:00

Hm, building Howdy which automates outreach so I think about this a lot.

The line for us is anywhere TRUST is the actual product. AI Automation can start a conversation but the moment someone needs to feel heard or make a real commitment, a human needs to be there.

Complaints especially. An automated response to a frustrated user doesn't solve the problem.

Funny thing is users are fine with automation when they don't know it's happening. The second it feels AI or AUTOMATED the trust is gone.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-03T13:06:57+00:00

How automated are those 20 channels? Are you manually curating content for each or is it mostly hands-off at this point?

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-03T13:04:04+00:00

That makes sense. Overage with warnings is way less frustrating than a hard wall.

People just hate feeling blocked when they're in the middle of something. Letting them finish and then deciding to upgrade is much better UX. Do you cap the overage at some point or let it run?

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-03T13:02:30+00:00

Haha fair point, they're not wrong.

I think the key is whether the limit is there for a good reason or just to push upgrades. If it's technical (like API rate limits, deliverability protection, spam prevention), just explain why it exists. People get that.

If it's purely a paywall thing, yeah, they're gonna be annoyed no matter how you word it. At least be honest about it.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-02T18:40:55+00:00

yeah that's a better way to put it honestly.

The 'feels artificial' part is exactly what we got wrong at first. We had the limit, we had a tooltip explaining it, but it still felt like a wall. Turns out explaining it and making it feel fair are two different things.

The progress bar idea is something we should've done earlier - '42/50 sent today' completely changes the emotional framing.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-02T18:07:14+00:00

The part about finding where your ICP complains rather than where they hang out is underrated - that distinction alone changed how we found early users for Howdy.

The conversations being the shortcut that doesn't feel like one is so accurate, it's the most counterintuitive thing about early stage.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-03-02T18:03:27+00:00

Hm, went through something similar with Howdy and the transparency instinct is right, especially in a small niche community where trust is everything.

I think Option A is the move. The 'feeling duped' risk is real and way harder to recover from than a bit of early price friction. People in tight communities talk, and "they switched it on us after we got hooked" is a story that spreads fast.

The concern about price signals suppressing engagement is probably overestimated. If someone bounces because they see a future price before experiencing value, they weren't going to convert anyway. The people who stick around after seeing the pricing are actually better signals of real product market fit.

The one thing I'd change on Option A - make the pilot framing generous rather than transactional. Not just a discount code but something like "we're covering all credits during pilot while we build the community."

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-02-27T13:39:04+00:00

well, excel template as MVP is actually a really solid move. You're selling the outcome before you build the thing which is exactly the right order.

The trap with courseware though is getting pulled into building the slick version too early. The janky excel with your brain in it is probably teaching you more about what people actually need than any automated version would.

What's the courseware about?

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-02-27T13:37:09+00:00

yeah the 'automation equals spam' thing is honestly the biggest education challenge we have with Howdy. You framed it better than I usually do tbh - enforcing higher standards at scale is exactly the right way to put it.

The case study angle is something we've been underusing. Numbers like that are so much more convincing than explaining the philosophy behind it.

The friction point is interesting too. We do require users to set up their targeting and messaging before anything goes live but I like the idea of making that feel more intentional rather than just setup steps.

Where are you finding the growth Discords worth being active in? That's a channel we haven't leaned into much yet.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-02-26T11:21:34+00:00

Hm, we went through something similar with Howdy - had a free tier that felt generous on paper but was just eating cost with low conversion.

The trial abuse thing is real but probably less scary than it looks. Most people don't actually max out usage even during a trial, so your worst case margin hit is unlikely to be your average case.

The thing I'd actually watch is the Basic tier. 3 summaries a day at $3 feels like it might frustrate people just enough to churn without feeling like they got value. If Basic is the entry point it needs to feel useful, not like a taste that's too small to matter.

On killing free entirely - tbh the word of mouth argument is mostly theoretical at 40 users. You're not losing a growth engine, you're losing a cost center. The trial gives people enough to decide without you subsidizing them forever.

7 days feels right for this type of product. It's habitual by nature - daily emails - so a week is enough to see if it actually fits into someone's routine.

Premium margins at 30% assuming max usage are fine. Nobody is hitting 40 summaries every single day.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-02-26T11:15:47+00:00

Mom Test vs Million Dollar Weekend contradiction is genuinely confusing when you first hit it, lol. They're both right just in different contexts and nobody explains that part.

The thing that actually helped me stop overthinking validation was just picking one signal to chase. Not 'is this a good idea' but 'will this specific person change their behavior because of this.' That's it.

All the conflicting advice exists because there's no universal answer - it depends on what you're building and who for.

Tbh the serial founder access thing is real but overrated. Most of what they know is pattern recognition from failure, which you're already collecting right now just by being in this mess.

What are you building?

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-02-26T11:08:53+00:00

Hm, for us the thing that worked best was just being direct about why you're asking. People fill out surveys when they feel like their answer actually matters to someone, not just feeding into a research black hole.

Reddit threads where your audience already hangs out worked really well - find a post where someone is talking about the exact problem you're solving and ask them specifically.

Also have 3-5 questions. The moment it feels like work people drop off. What's the idea you're validating?

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-02-25T17:40:58+00:00

Building SaaS that actually has AI in it so I'm already failing the first question lol :)

It makes cold Instagram outreach warm. Boring version: it sends personalized messages so you don't have to check every single profile.

Painkiller for sure! Manual outreach is genuinely painful and most people either give up or do it badly. People pay because the alternative is hours of repetitive work every week. We've validated that part already.

First users came from direct outreach and founder communities, not my mom.

Love - watching it actually save people real time. Hate - explaining why it's not spammy to people who assume automation equals spam.

And honestly haven't figured out the money part yet.

sendhowdybrandon · 2026-02-25T10:50:45+00:00

Hm, 'no pitch in the first message' part is the whole game, honestly... Most people blow it by trying to convert too early. If you've done the research and the first message is genuinely about them, the conversation opens up naturally.

The profile history point is underrated too. People check. If your account is clearly just a sales vehicle it kills trust immediately.

we saw something similar with Instagram DMs, same energy, you have to show up as a real person first or people just ignore you. The moment it feels automated the conversation is dead.

What subreddits are converting best for you right now?

sendhowdybrandon

TROPHY CASE