profile

StartUp To ScaleUp

StartUp Founders: Black Box Decision Making

Published about 1 year ago • 2 min read

Hey Reader,

Vanity is website traffic without conversions. Sanity is understanding why. It’s the difference between knowing what your product does and why it does it. Welcome to observability - where data meets reality. (𝕏)

Data, combined with inference and judgment, helps you find the root cause of everything. You see, you understand, and you act.

TL;DR: Observability isn't just about collecting data; it's about using it to see your product through your users eyes to build a product they can't live without. Observability Workbook.

PostHog: How StartUp Founders See Data

The single platform to analyze, test, observe, and deploy new features.

Free, for so long, for so much data, you'll probably never pay. Try PostHog now.

Want to get in front of 140,000+ founders? Go here.

LAST WEEKS FRAMEWORK:

3.1 AI First Era: Foundational Building

LETS GET INTO IT:

Your gut feeling as a founder is insane. The founders who lean in to data have a transformative experience, especially those who see hidden signals. Raw data is just noise without the right tools to interpret it, you are one of those tools.

Observability isn't just about your app's performance; it's about understanding the entire customer journey, from their first click to a successful checkout, and how you support (or hinder) that experience.

  • Why are users abandoning their shopping carts? Unexpected costs, complicated checkout process, or something else?
  • Why are users not engaging with a particular feature? They don't understand its value, it's difficult to use, or it doesn't meet their needs?
  • Why are some users churning at a higher rate than others? Is it pricing, lack of features, or poor support?

It's more than clicks, events, or time spent (the what). Its digging deeper to uncover the why, intelligence that informs product, marketing, and the business. Finding the root cause of something, good or bad, and doing something about it.

​The Observability Deck: Your Data-Drive Journey To Find Out Why

If you're still here, you're probably not sold on why you should care?

Observability is the difference between building a product that works vs fighting to create one that's truly exceptional. It's about answering questions that SHOULD keep you up at night:

  • Why are users abandoning their shopping carts?
  • Why aren't they engaging with that new feature?
  • Why are some users sticking around while others are leaving?

The Observability Stack lets you connect the dots, uncover the root causes, and make decisions that actually move the needle.

It's all hyper related, you cannot look at your data in a silo.

EX: You see a high volume of cart abandons, yet the experience is perfect, the app is working, you assume price - nope, the latency on your metal is driving people to give up.... only data would connect those dots.

The User: Track their every move, from demographics to in-app behavior. Understand their journey, pain points, and motivations.

The App: Monitor performance, errors, and feature usage. Ensure a smooth, seamless experience for every user interaction.

The Metal: Keep your servers and systems running smoothly. Optimize for speed, reliability, and scalability to handle any traffic surge.

Stop flying blind. It's not about becoming a data nerd; it's about becoming a smarter founder.

If you need help connecting the dots, feel free to grab time with me.

Now go meet reality.

-- James

​

Not A Subscriber?

Join 140k+ StartUp Founders reading my weekly newsletter offering tactical insights to start, scale, and fund their startup. Real advice from a 3x exited founder.

​

​

‪8424 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite A523, Los Angeles, CA 90069
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​

StartUp To ScaleUp

by James Sinclair

Where 140k+ founders read my weekly newsletter offering tactical insights to start, scale, and fund their startup. Real advice from a 3x exited founder.

Read more from StartUp To ScaleUp
The Moat

Hey Reader, What stops someone from stealing your idea? Not much. In most cases, I can find, hire, or outsource to a team that gets to basic parity with your tech. I’m not talking about stealing your vision, that’s what makes you unique. I’m talking about stealing your traction. Your customers. Your edge. That’s what a "moat" protects. Your competitive advantage, your defensible edge. And if you don’t have one yet, be very clear what’s holding your position... likely by a thread. In the early...

3 days ago • 4 min read
SCARF Empathy

Hey Reader, We need gamification!! We need a checklist at signup, because users don’t like leaving jobs unfinished. That’s certainty. They want a clear path, closure, and to know what's next. We need badges and progress markers, because users like feeling recognized. That’s status. They need to feel like they’re getting somewhere and that it matters. We need customizable flows and smart defaults, because users don’t like being forced into decisions. That’s autonomy. Give them agency, or...

10 days ago • 4 min read
Unreasonable

Hey Reader, Have you met the threshold for earned inevitability? As in, have you done such relentless, uncomfortable, comprehensive work that it would actually be unreasonable for this not to work?Only you know. There’s a difference between working hard and working so hard it breaks the logic of failure. Which is the goal. To manufacture the default outcome. ....And to do that, you have to find that level, that gear, that moment when your effort becomes so complete, so relentless, so...

17 days ago • 3 min read