Design is slowing you down

First-mover advantage vs. great design

I've always been a strong advocate for great design – great experience packaged in a beautiful UI. However, I've come to realize that sometimes, design isn't the top priority, especially when you aim to release a product with unique capabilities to the market.

When you're building a new app that enables people to do things that were previously impossible, your main focus should be on delivering that unique value. In this scenario, prioritizing design can actually slow down development and in turn even prevent you from being the first on the market, and losing all the first-mover advantages.

Let's consider this scenario:

1. Product A hits the market early with a poor but usable design. People start using it because it offers a new, valuable feature. It gains market share quickly and sets standards for its category.

2. Product B enters the market a little later with a slightly better design. Some users switch to Product B, but many have already invested for Product A, making the switch less appealing.

3. Product C finally arrives with a very polished design. However, it now faces the challenge of convincing users who have already invested in Products A, B or both (!), to make another switch.

While I believe that Product C can ultimately win as it provides the best experience, it will likely take a significant amount of time. Time is a precious resource, and taking too long can put you at risk of simply not surviving or giving up.

Examples of product A:

• AWS, the biggest player in the cloud provider space. I hear developers daily saying it’s confusing to use. But switching to a competitor comes at a high cost.

• Stripe set a high bar for design from the start, but without significant evolution over the years.

• Jira, Notion, ChatGPT, Zapier, Mailchimp…

Examples of product C:

• Linear, Pitch, Monday, Airtable, Cron (acq. by Notion), Lemon Squeezy

The key takeaway here is that when you're creating something entirely new, your primary focus should be on delivering that unique value to your users as quickly as possible, then iterate on improving design and making it more delightful. Design is important, but it probably shouldn't come at the expense of being first to market.

Of course, this doesn't mean you should neglect design entirely. Aim for a design that is functional and user-friendly, even if it's not perfect. Iterate and improve your design over time as you gather user feedback and solidify your position in the market.

Build in public updates

In March I’ve been focusing on Kerlig, as I aim to release it in April! I’ve added support for more AI models. The full list now includes: OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, GPT-3.5 Turbo), Claude (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku) and Gemini (Gemini Pro). I’ve also added support for formatted text, including code highlighting.

I had an idea for the logo update and gave it a shot! How do you like it?

Pre-order Kerlig now to pay the reduced price of only $19 $39 🤑
With every pre-order comes a gift! Abstract Wallpapers set in 6K. 🎁

At the same time, I'm a bit stressed out about spending too little time on LocalCan, but it's in good shape to sustain the busy period of developing Kerlig 🤞.

That’s all!

Stay tuned and I’ll see you next time! 👋

- Jarek