Failing is great
In the talk Vedant shared Reframe’s mindset of failing fast. He said that over the past few months, they’ve had over 158 iterations of the app. With every iteration they ship out new features, of which 70% fail. Vedant said, “We are looking for the 30%. We are willing to fail with these updates and features so we can get the one third of ideas that do work.”
Move fast
Another theme from the talk and reason for Reframe’s meteoric rise has been their ability to move fast. When speaking about it, Vedant stated, “You don’t know what’s going to work.” Oftentimes, Reframe will launch a new feature and if something isn’t working, it will become apparent and they’ll take it away. Especially in the consumer industry, feedback is given quickly and allows for quick alterations to the product. He also goes on to say, “Don’t wait too long scheming ideas and waiting for perfection… just do it!”
Don’t make anything too complicated
Vedant stressed simplicity in the onboarding process of customers as well as the actual idea. Ideas that are too complex for customers to understand are often pushed back on, thus creating a negative relationship between customers and an idea. With regards to simplifying the onboarding process, Vedant stressed making it easy and intuitive for customers. He said that if it’s not, customers might leave with the intention to come back and sign up, but never do.
Offboarding is just as important as onboarding
Counterintuitively, Vedant expressed the importance of having people get off an app. He stated that you want to make people want to come back, however if they exhaust the app in one sitting, they might not want to. He gave an analogy of eating cookies to represent his argument. He said, “It’s like having too many cookies. If you have them all at once, you’re never going to go eat them again.”
The product needs to make people feel good
Especially in the consumer space, it’s important that people feel good about using the product. That can be in the context of their enjoyment of using the app. In the case of software, users aren’t forced to use it, and the second they don’t like it, they will simply leave. In the context of referrals, Vedant expressed that no one will refer a product that doesn’t make them look good. He said, “If a product doesn’t make you look good, then no one will want to share it.”