REWORK

Scratch Your Own Itch (Replay)

Jul 17, 2024

Guest Shaun Hildner discusses the benefits of creating products that solve your own problems, using examples like Basecamp and HEY. Building for yourself leads to better quality control and avoids the pitfalls of only relying on customer feedback.

29:54

Episode guests

Shaun Hildner

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Quick takeaways

Creating products that scratch your own itch leads to better quality and user experience.

Avoid building products solely based on customer feedback and prioritize a strong, coherent product vision.

Deep dives

The Importance of Scratching Your Own Itch

Building successful products involves addressing personal needs. The hosts recall their early days in web design when managing projects became chaotic due to existing tools' limitations. They needed a solution that centralized communication, leading to the development of Basecamp. This example demonstrates the significance of catering to internal requirements in creating effective products.

Deeply considered solutions over MVP

01:17

Benefits of Scratching Your Own Itch

00:50

The Freedom of Saying No

01:26

Intro

2min

From Project Management to Email Innovation

10min

Creating Tools for Unique Needs and Satisfaction

3min

Building for Yourself vs. Clients

10min

Exploring the MVP Concept, Building for Themselves, and Dealing with a High-Resource-Consuming Customer

6min

In their book REWORK, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson write about the benefits of building products and services that you use yourself. "The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use." In this episode, originally aired November 2, 2021, Jason and David sit down with Shaun Hildner to discuss creating products that scratch your own itch.

Key Takeaways

00:43 – The origins of Basecamp and how it fulfilled an internal need
04:38 – Building to solve your own problems vs. someone else's
06:27 – The evolution of HEY and how it was created to solve their own frustrations with email
09:50 – How building for yourself leads to better quality control
14:25 – The problem with creating MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) and building based on customer feedback alone

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REWORK

Scratch Your Own Itch (Replay)

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

The Importance of Scratching Your Own Itch

Creating Tools for Personal Needs

Quality Assessment Through Personal Usage

Challenging the MVP Approach

Deeply considered solutions over MVP

Benefits of Scratching Your Own Itch

The Freedom of Saying No

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts