Surviving the early days of a product launch

No matter how many start up blogs you read, user testing sessions you conduct, market studies you digest... Nothing quite prepares you for the first few weeks of getting real customers for your product or service.  I'm going through it right now and like Stuart Smalley, I look at myself in the mirror every day and offer a positive affirmation because...

 1.  All those people who said they could imagine using your product that made you feel awesome and excited... Most of them won't actually do it, or at least not right away.

 2. Whatever your acquisition plans are for the long term, they won't work in the beginning.  It's hand to hand combat to get people to jump on board in the beginning and you just have to do things that you know won't scale.

 3.  Bugs you pooh-pooed during testing are magnified 1000% when a "real person" can't get through a task.  Oh- and those same "real people" don't care that you're in a Beta.

 4. Getting too high or too low from all of the above is dangerous.  The early days of a product launch are like Spring Training.  You can learn a lot but the details won't matter much in the end.

 So, don't feel bad if you're in this boat.  It's all normal.  Even if it doesn't feel like it.  


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