A Great Product Is Just The Beginning - How To Think Beyond The Build

Sharing strategies, stories and lessons that help great tech products thrive beyond launch.

Dec 16, 2024

The hardest part about building a product isn’t the product itself - it is everything before and after. Well, mainly after…

Most people are able to crack the idea, but success lies in the execution.

This newsletter is about the second phase - the one that doesn’t get enough attention. We celebrate launches, MVPs, and big product reveals. But the truth is, the hardest (and at times boring) work begins after the product ships - growth, retention, distribution, and creating ecosystems that make products indispensable.

I started this newsletter because of what I’ve been experiencing firsthand. As a product designer in a 0-1 team, I design everything a user sees on the screen - but because we’re a small team, we’ve all taken up additional tasks.

I’ve written content for years, but writing content for a 0-1 SaaS product is a whole new ballgame. This opened my eyes to an important truth:

The saying “If you build it, they’ll come“ is a big myth.

What separates the good from the great isn’t the build itself—it’s what comes next. That’s the question I want to explore here on Beyond the Build.

What Stripe teaches us about hustling beyond the build

When Stripe launched in 2010, its product was simple: a set of APIs that made it easy for developers to integrate payments into their apps. It was a fantastic product—elegantly designed, developer-friendly, and filling a massive gap in the market. But the Collison brothers knew that building the API wasn’t enough.

Stripe’s real success came from what they built around their product. They didn’t just target developers; they empowered them. Stripe invested in exceptional documentation, built out libraries and SDKs for every major programming language, and created partnerships with key platforms to expand their reach.

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Over time, this approach turned Stripe into more than just a payments processor. It became an ecosystem. Developers didn’t just integrate Stripe—they advocated for it, recommended it, and in many cases, built businesses on top of it.

The lesson here is clear:

Even the most beautifully designed product won’t thrive unless it’s supported by distribution, education and partnerships.

Stripe didn’t stop at building a product; they worked relentlessly to make it the go-to solution for developers worldwide.

Thanks for reading Beyond the Build. This post is public so feel free to share it. I’d appreciate the gesture highly :)

Solving problems beyond the product - the Intuit story

Intuit’s early success with products like TurboTax and QuickBooks didn’t just come from great design or usability—it came from understanding the entire ecosystem of small businesses and individuals they served.

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For example, QuickBooks wasn’t just accounting software; it became the backbone for small businesses to manage payroll, taxes, and invoicing. Intuit focused heavily on building partnerships with accountants and financial institutions, creating an ecosystem where their product wasn’t just useful—it was indispensable.

The takeaway:

Intuit didn’t stop at solving one problem. They looked beyond the product to address the broader needs of their users, creating trust and loyalty that fueled their long-term growth.

The journey ahead

This newsletter is my way of bringing you along on that journey. I’m not here as a subject matter expert; I’m here as a curator, exploring the stories, strategies, and lessons that can help all of us think bigger about what comes after we’ve built something great.

Whether you’re a founder, a PM, a designer like me, or someone just curious about what separates good from great in tech, I hope Beyond the Build can be a place where you find ideas that inspire action.

Coming up next

Some pieces I have planned for the initial posts here:

How Spotify decides what to build next: A behind-the-scenes look at how Spotify balances creativity and data to make product decisions
Why Discord wins at community building: Lessons from the platform that turned online groups into thriving communities

and a lot more…

I hope you’ll stick around - there’s a lot we’ll explore together.

Happy building,

Som