This article is a nudge to the classic good product manager / bad product manager article by Ben Horowitz. Back in my product days, I printed a copy and kept it at my desk at all times. Today I'm applying a similar mental model to consumer crypto products.

Good crypto products are design driven, bad products are clunky

Teams often bucket user experience design as “I’ll get later to it” type of task. But, great products have been design driven from the start. Design should be interpreted in all the senses of the word. It impacts both a product and company's processes. But, most importantly, it’s reflected in the product experience.

It’s in each screen, the user flow, the copy and even the docs. I often come back to Nikita’s bier quote: “Every tap is a miracle.” This is part of his philosophy to make apps go viral. 

Not everything is design, design it’s the end goal, it represents the vision. Technicalities are hard, and getting there is hard. That’s one of the main reasons why even crypto power users still run into trouble with their wallets. Vitalik recently wrote about what we would love to see in a wallet, from a user experience and technical perspective.

Good crypto products have elegant token models, bad products go with the narrative

I recently read Gagra’s “Designing a Token” article, and I should point you there as the main resource. And although I'd love to write a longer piece on token model design, I’ll provide some key points here.

• Points are better than airdrops, but they’re not the best. These campaigns drive a lot of growth, but these users will churn long term and will represent a big fall in usage. Teams should be wary of this. Your points system should prioritize real usage of the app, and reward real users. Even if it means less growth, and the mob being angry on the timeline.

• Tokens should be tied directly to the value capture of the product and network, there should be no other entity gathering value. As a serious builder, the last thing you want is for your token to shift towards a heavy speculative angle.

• Tokens should act as the access point to the product. Do you want to keep using the product? Then you need some tokens. This should be intertwined within the experience, but abstracted enough so anyone can get hooked on the app without directly knowing the technical complexities.

• Don't copy the latest token mechanic. Each product needs a unique model. Bad products usually go with whatever the latest booming project or narrative has chosen as their token model, which may end up in big speculation growth driven by mercenary users.

Good crypto products don’t spend money on marketing, bad products focus on KOLs

Don’t get me wrong here, there are multiple channels for doing marketing, and depending on the product and audience, one might be better at a specific moment for a specific product. 

That said, the best products don’t need to spend heavily on marketing or sales, especially on the start, because they have cracked user sharing, and viral dynamics in the product. They’re simply too good. The activation, engagement and retention metrics are through the roof, and the output is a great k-factor.

Closing

It’s very difficult to do all of the good, none of the bad, especially at the early stages. Most products don’t check any of the boxes, and only a handful check more than one.

As a founder, you should strive to check more boxes. Hire team members that will help you tick one of the boxes, the next designer, the next pm, the next growth person, the next dev. Design processes and deliverables that improve each.

Interacting with a thoughtful, delightful product is an experience that we all love. Crafting an experience like this comes down to the teeny tiny details.

At SGV, we like to use the products we invest in, and we like to invest when we have a product that checks some of the boxes. If you're building a product like this, DM us.

This post is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell securities or to pursue any particular investment strategy. This post should not be relied upon in evaluating the merits of any investment or any particular investment strategy. You should consult your own advisers as to business, financial, tax, legal, and all other related matters concerning any investment. The views expressed in this post reflect the current opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Social Graph Ventures LLC