Not revenue or customer driven
Almost every product decision we make at Kinde is driven by a single one of our values. It’s this: We exist to build the business of our customers. We focus on them first, because growing their business is the best way to grow our own. Customers first, revenues second. Always in that order.
On the surface that seems like an odd value to use to help make product decisions – but we believe it’s actually the most important factor. You see, if we start thinking too much about revenue, then we start making decisions that are led by chasing revenue. This means building custom features for one off customers. Subverting our roadmap so that we can chase after single large accounts. And letting money drive every decision we make.
In most company’s this is the norm. And the result is average products that are hard to fall in love with and carry all the hallmarks of traditional enterprise tech: hard to use, horrible to work with every day, and hated by most people who are forced to use them.
It’s odd that the thing that everyone claims to be - customer driven - ends up being the worst thing for their customers in reality.
Don’t get me wrong. We spend a lot of time with our customers. Our team talks with them – obsessively. We spend an insane amount of time learning from them and understanding what would make them successful with the products that we build. This is a great thing.
But it can’t be the only thing. We cannot allow ourselves to be driven entirely by these voices. We have to always be driven by the vision of the change we are trying to create in the world. And this is true for everyone who is trying to build anything great. It means having a deep understanding and appreciation for customers. For the people who will ultimately have to use your product. Enough that you can also see what they need most. What will make them superheroes – without them necessarily even knowing it. This is where great products are born.
For us we have another secret advantage – and I actually believe this is true for most great products and companies. The thing that we are building is something that we actually need and use every day. We’re building it for ourselves. We are a team of founders and engineers, building for founders and engineers. We have experienced the problem of SaaS infrastructure first hand. And so we have a deep and rounded understanding of our problem space as well as a passion for making something that will truly improve people’s lives.