I released an embarrassing MVP, and my users made it into something I am proud of
Some lessons you have to learn experience yourself.
I think releasing a truly minimal MVP is one of those. No matter how much people tell you to "release early and often", to begin with, you will want to polish, perfect, and "just add one more feature".
It took me a while for this to sink in; I'm on my fourth product and only now am I getting this. Still, I could have released it sooner.
I was incredibly anxious about releasing Tweet Tribe. I felt it was missing too many features and way too clunky. Before starting it, however, I had decided to release it early, at a time when it made me uncomfortable.
I had been building in public from idea inception to MVP release (and I'm still going now over on Twitter @jamaruuuu) and collecting interest along the way.
I had saved up a small list of accounts, and when I released my MVP, I DMed them all, inviting them onto it.
Despite them signalling interest, I'll admit that not all of them signed up. I had naively assumed they would, which in hindsight, was silly.
Next time I'll build a more extensive list.
Nevertheless, I had 15 or so people on my app trying it out. I was both thrilled and terrified. It was great that people were on it, but what if they hated it?
Thankfully, my fears were unfounded as It actually turned out most of them liked the idea.
Although none converted into paying users, most of them took the time to write me incredibly detailed feedback, feedback which I have spent the past few weeks implementing and improving on.
Thanks to releasing it earlier than I felt comfortable with and the kindness of my MVP users, Tweet Tribe is now in a completely different place than it was at first.
I'm sure I'll get my first paying customer reasonably soon as I ramp up the marketing.
It's not perfect, and I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm proud of where it is now and what it is becoming.
Tweet Tribe helps you to build an engaged following and interact with your audience in less time with automatically generated smart lists, distraction-free list feeds, mentions quick-replying and more.
Protect your momentum like your life depends on It
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Very cool Jamal, congrats on shipping early!
I love the social proof on the homepage with the profile pictures, super clever and makes it look like the product is quite established/used :)
Will definitely try it when I start to ramp up Twitter for my own project.
I assume you keep local copies of the twitter data for your users?
I recently started an open source project to make syncing data from external APIs to your local DB very easy: https://github.com/NangoHQ/nango
Thought this might be helpful for you, all the best with Tweet tribe!
Thanks, mate!
I think Tweet Tribe can really help you to efficiently use Twitter when you get to it, please give it a go :)
I pull in their names, usernames, and profile picture links etc. yes. I'll take a look :)
All the best with your projects too!
Just signed up for a trial. Very focused product.
I like the first impression and would like it even more if I had more mentions. ;-)
Thanks! I hope you like it!
If you are a smaller account, I recommend using the lists feature to...
This should kick-start your growth, and start getting your more mentions to make use of the mentions feature ;)
I'm also open to suggestions for things that would make it more useful to you!
Thanks Jamal. I see some overlap with scheduling and engagement tools like Tweethunter, but obviously, they are more complex and more expensive.
For Tweet Tribe lists: It might be helpful to be able to import Twitter lists (like his one. https://twitter.com/i/lists/1368738285263159296). That would make it faster to set up Tweet Tribe lists with relevant groups of people. Would that be possible?
(I'm partly working on a similar project. But we're not focused on Twitter. We're working on a unified inbox that helps you follow interesting sources on all their different channels at the same time. So tweets, email newsletters, RSS feeds - all in one inbox.)
That's definitely possible.
It's actually something I have planned, I'm not sure when I'll get to it yet though.
I see! Good luck on your project too :)
Congrats Jamal!! How did you find those people in the first place? Did you post something before like describing what you do and offering the tool for free? Great insight anyway and will work on it on my AI copywriter release. ;)
I was building in public during the whole MVP creation and gathered interest via those posts.
Definitely recommend building in public. We have that freedom as indie developers.
Congrats! Keep up the good work.
Cheers mate :)
It's a great product, I love it, keep the good work.
Thanks, I'm glad you think so!
You've made my day 🥲
Nice idea , congrats on your release.
Cheers mate :)
A polished MVP takes off the good learning from the table. Instead, a very simple MVP is the perfect way to learn what is worth to build.
That's exactly what I found this time around.
My users guided me in the right direction and helped me to prioritise and even come up with features, UX improvements, and more.
It's like a magic power.
That‘s a great lesson. How did you collect the feedback from the users? Did you put a feedback form onto the page?
Not quite.
I already had a Twitter-DM relationship with them, and they, by their own volition DMed me huge lists of feedback, with annotated screenshots and everything.
That’s a great and inspiring story, thank you for sharing!
Thanks for reading!
Great insight. I did the same thing the second time around and got a great amount of feedback too.
It's so true what you said about always being able to launch sooner but holding back every time. It's so hard to do.
You're a faster learner than me then! Haha.
Yeah, like I said, even though I launched early when I wasn't comfortable this time, I still could have launched earlier!
Still holding back a little!
I’m in a similar spot. Releasing an mvp I do not think is ready. How did you do your customer feedback? Online I see you should be adding mixpanel style tracking etc. or did you just have deep conversations with them about their experience?
To be honest, if you are adding mixpanel, feedback forms etc., in my opinion, you have gone past the MVP stage.
My MVP didn't have any of that (it still doesn't).
People reached out to me on Twitter.
In my app's footer I even put, "If you have any questions 🤔 Suggestions 💡 or Problems 😩 Give me a shout on Twitter."
Cheers, Jamal — delightful story! 🥂
Thanks Lilian, glad you think so!
Nice job! Making an MVP is the way to go in my opinion. It also ensures a bit of validation and besides, you will actually polish your product with the feedback of the early adopters.
Have a nice day :)
Exactly.
Before building my MVP I mocked it up and showed it to some people in video calls to see if there was interest, but the MVP definitely provides extra validation.
The polishing is the real benefit though!
Congrats! Did you do anything else to reach out to your first customers other than via Twitter DM?
Well, I was building in public all while building my MVP, which helped get some awareness, as well as interested people to DM.
The DMs I sent, in the beginning, to get people on calls to validate the idea were all cold, but the ones when I released the MVP were all to people who had signalled interest.
On release, I only really DMed people. I wanted to keep it fairly low-key to begin with.
Good to know. Thanks for sharing!
That seemed like a nice experience buddy. keep up the good work!
Yep, it's been great!
Releasing early, and getting feedback early definitely helps!
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