- The key question is how to determine what to build next
- A product development cycle allows for working on multiple things
- It is important to have a process to quickly build and test things to see if they work
- Having a technically talented team that can build MVPs quickly is more important than being a super genius who can predict the future
- Imagination is necessary for long-term vision, but it is difficult to predict short-term tactical moves
- The mistake at Justin.tv was only focusing on big home run ideas and taking too long to perfect them, leading to failure.

How do you determine what to build next? YC Partner and CEO Michael Seibel shares his framework for an early stage product development cycle.

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So the question is, basically, how do we figure out what to build next?

The reason why you have a product development cycle is that you can work on multiple things.

Usually all of the things that you want to build won't work.

So what you need to do is you need to create a process in your company to build things quickly so that you can actually see whether they work or not, and then you can iterate them from there.

So it's far more important to have a technically talented team that can build MVPs quickly in a non-frustrating way, and then measure the results, than it is to be a super genius who can imagine what's going to happen in the future without actually knowing.

Now, in the big picture, you have to have that imagination.

For your vision, for where it's going to be 10 years from now, you have to have that imagination.

For the little technical, like tactical move in the next 3 months, like it's really hard to nail those.

If you have a process that can rip out things quickly and then only iterate the things that are working, that'll serve you far better.

It was thinking every time We've got the home run.

And of course, it would take 3 months to do it because we got to make it perfect, right?

And then the whole spike spiral of death.


Speaker 0: So the question is, basically, how do we figure out what to build next? Here's my answer. The reason why you have a product development cycle is that you can work on multiple things. Usually there isn't a right answer. Usually all of the things that you want to build won't work.

So what you need to do is you need to create a process in your company to build things quickly so that you can actually see whether they work or not, and then you can iterate them from there. So it's far more important to have a technically talented team that can build MVPs quickly in a non-frustrating way, and then measure the results, than it is to be a super genius who can imagine what's going to happen in the future without actually knowing. Now, in the big picture, you have to have that imagination. For your vision, for where it's going to be 10 years from now, you have to have that imagination. For the little technical, like tactical move in the next 3 months, like it's really hard to nail those.

If you have a process that can rip out things quickly and then only iterate the things that are working, that'll serve you far better. Our mistake was that at Justin.tv. It was thinking every time We've got the home run. Let's only swing for home runs. And of course, it would take 3 months to do it because we got to make it perfect, right?

And then the whole spike spiral of death. You

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Michael Seibel: How do you decide what to build next?