Scout Collins’s Reviews > The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company > Status Update

473: CHECKLIST: PRODUCT VISION
474: CHECKLIST: PRODUCT FEATURES & BENEFITS
509: CHECKLIST: SALES ACTION CHANNEL PLAN

...When you get negative feedback, first respond, then tell all your customers that you've listened and made the improvements your customers suggested.
3. Loyalty program: does the program create an incentive for the behaviour you want, whether more active site use or more frequent purchasing?

397: Optimizing keep programs - optimize results
1. User outreach programs: what do customers say when you email, tweet, or call them about their use of/satisfaction with the product?
2. If customers are responding in small numbers, add an incentive to stimulate response, such as 'tell your opinion and get a free month's service just for speaking up'.

386: People visit the site but don't click (no activation)
Implement optimization tactics:
1. Find the page where most users abandon ship. Start testing stronger calls to action & improved navigation on this page fast
6. Conduct usability testing where you watch actual customers review your homepage

382: Which 'get' program:
3. gives you the best customers? If, for example, an email campaign gets you customers who buy faster, spend more, or visit more often and stay longer, you obviously want more of those folks. So prioritize the plan to optimize that program.

378: 'Understanding why your customers said no is more important than understanding why they said yes. Understand where in the process turndowns happen to help refine the sales roadmap.'

376: 'If enough customers ask for the same set of 'custom' features, they're not custom at all, since customers are suggesting the 'real' product requirements.'

375: 'Anyone can give away or deeply discount a product to get an order, but that doesn't test true buying intentions...
Customer enthusiasm is best-tested when the product is sold for as close to full price as you can get. In fact, you want to label access to the product as the 'early access program' and have customers fight to be a part of it.'

374: Users are known to spend as little as a few seconds scanning a page to find something of interest. Visitors focus on headlines, highlighted words and bulleted lists but scan the text. Few visitors read all or even many of the words.

343: A dashboard where the business goals are increase page views, referrals and email delivery
(example of a simple dashboard)
everyone should have one