To scale, you must do things that don’t scale.
Talking Points:
- To scale, you must do things that don’t scale. Chesky, the CEO of airbnb, lived in California, but early users of his app lived in New York. He spent weekends in New York with the hosts and did things like take photos and get feedback from them.
- Creating a successful business is like launching a rocket. In the first phase you want to design the perfect product. Just like with a rocket booster, this takes a lot of energy, focus, and attention to gets things started. You do a lot of work by hand in this phase.
- Eventually a rocket gets into orbit and this is equivalent to the scale phase. At this point you have to scale your product to go viral. This part of the phase has to involve more automated systems. You also switch from relational marketing to a more operational and systematic approach.
- Chesky also acknowledges a transition phase between the two major phases. In this transitional phase you have to keep in mind two opposing mindsets: empathy for the single user and a concern for the broader user base. The goal when scaling a product is to keep those two mindsets balanced as you transition from one major phase to another.
Discussion:
- Initial reactions to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- What is the product you have designed that you would like to go viral?
- Have you designed a perfect product? If not, what are some things you could change about your product to make it perfect?
- Think of some ways to connect with beginning users. Why is this relational aspect so important in the first phase of your product?
- Describe the opposing mindsets that occur in the transition phase. How do you keep these mindsets balanced?
- Is there a step you need to take based on today’s topic?
From “Masters of Scale” podcast with Brian Chesky and Reid Hoffman
