Rahul Vohra on Product-Market Fit, Game Design, and Building Superhuman

Rahul Vohra, founder and CEO of Superhuman, is one of the most thoughtful and insightful founders in tech today. In this wide-ranging conversation, Rahul shares his unique perspectives on building great products and companies.

Finding Product-Market Fit

Rahul is perhaps best known for his systematic approach to finding product-market fit. He explains that there are some key ideas many still don't understand:

1. You can measure product-market fit numerically
2. You can optimize and systematically increase product-market fit
3. You can even have an algorithm write your roadmap to increase product-market fit

The core of Rahul's approach is asking users "How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?" with options of "very disappointed," "somewhat disappointed," or "not disappointed." Companies that struggle to grow typically have less than 40% "very disappointed" users, while the fastest growing companies have over 40%.

To increase this number, Rahul recommends:

• Don't focus too much on feedback from "very disappointed" users - they already love your product
• Ignore feedback from "not disappointed" users - they're too far from loving it
• Focus on "somewhat disappointed" users for whom your main product benefit resonates

By systematically addressing the objections of this segment, you can increase your product-market fit score over time.

Crucially, Rahul notes that to get to product-market fit, "you have to deliberately not act on the feedback of many of your early users." You need to listen intently, but be selective about what feedback you actually implement.

Game Design vs Gamification

Rahul has a unique perspective on product design, drawing on his background as a professional game designer. He believes business software should be designed like games to make products fun, engaging, and viral.

However, he emphasizes this is very different from "gamification" - simply adding points, levels, or badges to existing products. That approach often backfires by reducing intrinsic motivation.

Instead, Rahul focuses on core game design principles like:

• Goals
• Emotions
• Toys
• Controls
• Flow

He gives the example of Superhuman's time autocompleter as a "toy" - a playful, exploratory feature that's fun even without a specific goal. By combining multiple "toys," you can build an overall experience that feels game-like.

Pricing Strategy

Superhuman took a contrarian approach to pricing, charging $30/month for email when most alternatives are free. Rahul explains their strategy:

1. First, determine your positioning. Superhuman positioned itself as "the best email tool on the market for high-performing teams and individuals."

2. Use the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter to survey users on pricing. Superhuman focused on the price point where users said it "starts to feel expensive, but you'd still buy it after consideration."

3. Do a gut check on market size. At $30/month, could they reach enough subscribers to justify their valuation targets?

This approach allowed Superhuman to price at a premium while still growing rapidly.

AI Integration

Superhuman has been at the forefront of integrating AI into email. Some of their key AI features include:

• Write with AI: Generates full emails from a few words, matching your writing style
• Auto-summarize: Shows one-line summaries of email threads
• Instant reply: Pre-generates draft replies to emails
• Ask AI: Natural language search across your email archive
• Auto-labels: Automatically categorizes emails based on custom prompts
• Auto-reminders: Sets reminders for emails needing responses
• Auto-drafts: Generates follow-up emails and replies
• Workflows: Automates multi-step email processes

Rahul notes that user adoption of AI features has been somewhat unpredictable. Some seemingly basic features like "Write with AI" have seen massive usage (37 times per user per week on average), while other more complex features have seen less adoption than expected.

Enterprise Expansion

Superhuman is increasingly moving into the enterprise market. This has required some shifts:

• Building more robust calendar functionality to meet Outlook users' expectations
• Adding enterprise security features like external recipient warnings
• Supporting mobile device management platforms
• Developing analytics for workplace management teams

Rahul notes that enterprise sales involves multiple stakeholders beyond just end users, requiring a more complex, multi-threaded sales approach.

Decision Making: Single Decisive Reason (SDR)

Rahul shared an interesting decision-making framework used at Superhuman called "Single Decisive Reason" (SDR). For any major decision, they try to identify one reason that alone justifies the choice.

The rationale is that people often justify decisions with a collection of weak reasons, which can lead to poor choices. By forcing teams to identify a single, strong reason, it ensures the core justification is sound.

When presented with a decision, Rahul will ask "What's the SDR?" If the team can't isolate one, it suggests they haven't fully thought through the rationale.

Key Takeaways

1. Product-market fit can be systematically measured and improved
2. Apply game design principles, not just gamification, to make products engaging
3. Position your product before determining pricing strategy
4. AI integration can drive massive user value, but adoption may be unpredictable
5. Moving to enterprise requires significant product and process changes
6. Force decisions to have a single, strong justification rather than many weak ones

Rahul's insights demonstrate the power of contrarian thinking and obsessive attention to detail in building category-defining products. By challenging conventional wisdom and focusing relentlessly on user experience, Superhuman has managed to turn email - a decades-old technology - into one of the most exciting products in tech today.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0igjSRZyX-w