I'm Lotanna, founder of XPO - Paypal for influencers, AMA 🤘🏿
Lotanna Ezeike
8 replies
I have a background in sports and finance so you're probably wondering how am I getting on with tech 👨🏿💻
We launched XPO a little over 2 weeks ago, right here on Product Hunt 🐱
After launch, the first thing I realised is that you shouldn't assume your users will know how to use your product right off the bat !
Here to answer any question relating to dumb-proofing your product based on initial user feedback. Also, how to efficiently collect user-feedback and implement.
Replies
Emily Hodgins@ejhodgins
Product Hunt
Hi Lotanna. 👋🏻 When launching a product it's pretty scary/daunting to put yourself out there with your initial product, but getting those first eyes on what you're building is so helpful. At what point did you ask for your initial feedback? What advice would you give to other Makers that might not be sure if they're 'ready' to receive this yet?
Share
Bible Buddy
@ejsnowdon
Hey, I asked from the very first day. We have to put our egos aside, thats the only thing that truly makes us apprehensive about getting feedback. (My personal opinion)
One thing I do, is put a group of my users max 5 in a group chat and ask them open ended questions on specific processes.
What are the steps to sending a request ? + anything you'd change ?
What do you feel about the layout of the settings page ? + why ?
You're building the PayPal for influencers -- could you tell us how you put together your go-to market strategy? Many of us makers struggle to find our first users ... in your case you are targeting a community that is used to getting called on a lot. Would love to hear more about that.
Bible Buddy
@abadesi
Acquiring influencers is probably the hardest thing to do...ever. Like you said they get contacted often so you'd have to differentiate yourself.
I think something that worked out in our favour - is us being scammed by our last dev. We were originally meant to launch in April before the whole fiasco. This meant I already contacted all the influencers and kept them in the loop about the product. For the last 5 months I've been keeping in contact and strengthening my relationship with them.
We actually saw a newsletter from @producthunt about the team at cameo and how they acquired talent. We found it very interesting !
The DMs strategy truly does work !
The key to a good DM is not to come of as too Sales-y.
e.g
--
Heyy Doll x
I'm not sure if you still do promotions on instagram but saw [insert popular influencer for social proof] on this XPO app thing. Seems exclusive though.
[insert link]
Keep doing your thing x
--
This DM would not come from our personal account but from college interns we've hired to send DMs.
@producthunt @lotts love that!! Short and snappy but also very compelling. Thanks for sharing!
I have had similar issues with my beta, where do you find the balance of iterating the platform in response to user feedback readily and sticking with features you know will enable you to provide that additional value; if not now, further down the line even if it is not being used currently and may take some "encouragement"?
Bible Buddy
@mechanlinkuk
I think they key thing is using something like Mixpanel. A software where you can essentially see where your users are going and clicking on your app.
The key is to listen to the problem your users have & not necessarily listen to the solutions they provide.
When a user gives us feedback we also feedback that feedback to other users for them to give their opinions on. This really does help us prioritise and balance our iterating.
+ you don't KNOW if a feature will provide value, unless it already has. Its just an assumption you're making. You can ask your devs to hide the function and you can re-enable later on. No harm !