AMA: Superhuman Director, Product Growth, Bruno Gobbis on Building 0-1 Products

In my experience, you’re ready to invest in building once you have a strong conviction that a real, significant problem exists AND that your proposed solution concept resonates with target users. I always try to look for concrete signals before green-lighting more engineering work: Deep Problem Understanding: Ensure you clearly define the problem and its root causes. This usually comes from extensive user research: talking to customers, observing their pain points, and verifying this problem is ...Read More

Great question! That is also something I'm always trying to find the sweet spot. Balancing big bets vs. quick wins is a constant battle. I like working on it by using a combination of strategic allocation and frameworks to ensure we can do both in a sustainable way: Strategic capacity allocation method (Boulders, Rocks, Pebbles): One approach I love is thinking of our initiatives as boulders, rocks, and pebbles. Boulders are the large foundational projects (multi-month, high uncertainty, potenti ...Read More

Deciding to become a multi-product company is a significant strategic leap. I didn't work deciding if we should do it or not, but I was in different situations where the company did or did not, and I learned through them. I'd approach this by evaluating a few key dimensions: Saturation of the First Product: First, consider whether our core product still has significant room to grow. Is our main product hitting a plateau in terms of market penetration or innovation? If there are still obvious “lo ...Read More

When I have a hypothesis about a customer problem, which is where I believe we all should start, I treat validating that problem as a mini-project. User interviews: Basic, right? The first and most important activity is talking directly with customers or potential users who might have the problem. But that's not so simple. The goal is to hear in their words how painful the problem is (or if it’s a problem at all), and never lead them to specific assumptions. I like to ask them to tell stories: “ ...Read More

That is a good one! Building a product from scratch is hard. I'll share some I did in the past and how I learned through them. Falling in love with an idea: Classic. Real. The biggest mistake I made. Committing to an idea that we think is brilliant without thoroughly understanding the user’s problem. This often leads us to build something that no one needs. A 0→1 PM must be almost obsessive about user research early on and always question bias situations. I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) to ...Read More

Classic startup fear—I get it. The reality is that many great products begin as “just a feature” of someone else’s platform—but they succeed by doing that feature extremely well or by leveraging speed and focus that big competitors can’t match. That's where you can become unique and minimize this probability. Worst-case scenario analysis: Ask two questions about your competitor: if they could copy it easily, would they actually choose to? Large companies have lots of priorities and often move sl ...Read More

Good one. Balancing the now versus the future is one of the trickiest parts of product strategy, especially with the rapid improvements we have seen with AI. This is still a moving target for us, so we are all still learning, but here are some concepts I believe might help: Allocate resources in “buckets”: I like to intentionally divide product investment into buckets by horizon. Let's say Horizon 1 is for immediate customer needs, improvements, Horizon 2 is mid-term strategic projects, and Hori ...Read More

I definitely like this concept, and searching for this mentality in a big organization can be super challenging – I’ve been there twice, where stakeholders expect every release to be polished like a new iPhone launch. Here are some things that I've seen in practice: Frame the launch accordingly: It’s crucial to align everyone on why we’re launching an imperfect (read embarrassing) product. Explicitly set the expectation that the goal of your MVP launch is to gather feedback, not to generate huge ...Read More

Designing a new product is so cool, but also daunting cause it's just a... blank... canvas. Understand the user’s world: I believe inspiration begins with empathy. Try to immerse yourself in the user’s environment and tasks. If possible, I’ll shadow potential users or simulate their day-to-day. For example, when working on a product for sales reps, I actually sat in on sales calls and used a CRM for days to feel their pain. This firsthand experience often sparks ideas for design – you notice “Wo ...Read More

Product–solution fit is the stage where a solution clearly addresses a real user problem in a way that’s good enough for early users to adopt and return to it. I like to validate this in several ways. User feedback and early usage: After launching an MVP or pilot, look for real usage and enthusiastic feedback. If users are solving their intended task, even with a basic version, that’s a positive sign. Retention and the “Very Disappointed” test: Track retention and use quick surveys to measure em ...Read More