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- ✅ This makes a product good
✅ This makes a product good
Hey 👋
When I was a kid, my parents owned a VHS player I would always go to war with.
Eight times out of ten, when you inserted a tape, it would go in about halfway, pause for a few seconds, make a weird noise, and then spit the tape back out.
Trying to watch a movie went like this:
Insert tape.
Weird pause with random noises.
Tape spits back out.
Repeat steps 1-3 about eight more times.
Finally, the VHS player accepts the tape, and the movie begins playing.
This happened almost every time I tried to use the VHS player.
But there were rare moments when the VHS player would decide to be nice and accept the tape on the first try. On those days, there was something so satisfying about the VHS player working as it should.
When the tape went in and started playing on the first try, it brought a surprising sense of joy.
“Yes! This pos finally worked like normal,” I’d think to myself.
I’m sure you can relate to this. Maybe it wasn’t a faulty VHS player for you — maybe it was a coffee maker, a TV remote, or a project management tool that wouldn’t cooperate. And it makes you wonder: what makes a product good?
Tech bros often distill it down to user retention metrics and data. But we humans are feeling creatures.
A good product is often simply something that makes us feel good to use.
Let’s hear it one more time for the people in the back…
What makes a good product? It’s something that makes people feel good to use — it gives people joy.
Whether it’s navigating a user interface or website, a pair of headphones that make you feel like you’re in a production studio, or a restaurant menu that’s so simple it avoids the paradox of choice — feeling good when interacting with a product or service is what makes it great.
And when something is frustrating to interact with, I often think there’s something wrong with it.
This principle also applies to marketing, advertising, or just sharing ideas. People are more likely to listen to what you have to say when you make them feel good about themselves.
The experiences that make us feel good are the ones we want to repeat.
And the ones that make us feel bad are the ones we tend to avoid.
I dreaded using that VHS player. It did not make me feel good. It frustrated me. And if we hadn’t grown up in a lower-middle-class family, we probably would have bought a new one. It was not a good product.
But in those rare moments when the tape played on the first try, a big smile would spread across my face, reminding me that when something — or someone — makes us feel good, we’re more likely to return to it.
And that’s exactly what a good marketer does: creates an emotional connection that motivates people to engage with a brand again and again.
And when you focus on creating that kind of positive experience, it’s no surprise that the world often finds ways to return the favor.
With that, let's get into what we have in store this week (lots of good stuff):
Marketing news from the past week
Common product messaging mistakes
How to write great hooks
Inspiration from Adobe’s blog and SEO
Manipulation in advertising
Ad of the week
Website of the week
Cool marketing jobs
And much more
🗞 In the news
🚀 All things growth & product
Going from $0 to $20M ARR in 5 years, how to slow churn in SaaS, the myth of exponential hyper-growth, and common product & website messaging mistakes.
💭 Guess the riddle
What happened to the blogger who stole my computer?
Answer is at the bottom of this email
💌 Emails, psychology, & copy
14 cancellation email examples for SaaS, a secret discount page hack, and how to write great hooks.
✍️ SEO & content marketing
How to craft a winning SEO strategy, three great things about Adobe’s SEO & blog design, and using content to help business succeed.
How to create LinkedIn posts that people actually care about, manipulation in advertising, and five brands that are rewriting the rules of innovation.
🦖 Career & life
📣 Ad of the week
Sears Free Spirit bike ad from 1976
💻 Website of the week
🏝 Cool marketing jobs
Okay, that's it for now 🩷. See you in the next edition!
What did you think of this newsletter? |
“You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.” — Austin Kleon
Riddle answer: He finally got RSS-ted.
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