In this week's episode of The REWORK Podcast, 37signals’ co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson share their approach to product design, explaining why the first version of a product (V1) is always built for the company's internal use case. They discuss responding to user feedback and the importance of actively using their own products to uncover issues. They also dive into the challenges they've faced when building software for someone else's needs vs. their own.
Key Takeaways:
- 00:35 - The problem with imagined use cases
- 07:21 - A trimmed down V1 gives you permission to focus on what's most important
- 10:28 - The story of Highrise
- 17:27 - “Dogfooding” to help identify and address product issues
- 20:48 - Avoid the temptation to react too quickly to early customer feedback
- 23:11 - Design breakthroughs come to life by creating innovative solutions
Links and Resources:
Version 1 is for you – Jason Fried's HEY World post
Books by 37signals
Sign up for a 30-day free trial at Basecamp.com\
HEY World | HEY
The REWORK podcast
The Rework Podcast on YouTube
The 37signals Dev Blog
37signals on YouTube
@37signals on X
