SoC #47: First Versions of Products

Read time: 3 minutes

I'm Lisa - welcome to this week's edition of Stream of Consciousness - the newsletter for product leaders who want to build products and their careers more consciously, in ways that are inclusive, holistic, ethical, accessible, and sustainable.

Join 1232 conscious product leaders who want to put their time and energy into building more conscious products (and careers):

Everyone's got to start somewhere.

When we think of products that have become staples in our lives and embedded in our culture we often forget about how long they've had to grow and evolve over time.

Most didn't begin as the product we all know and use today.

I am writing this as a reminder not to put too much pressure on yourself and your team to build "the perfect product" from day one.

Rather - what is a basic product you can conceive of that solves an important problem for a specific group of people, and how can you build it so you can use it to learn quickly to know how to improve it?

As a fun reminder, here are some examples of where some well-known products started:

The First Car

The First Electronic Programmable Computer

First Mouse

First Cell Phone

First Wireless TV Remote Control

First iPod

Early Version of Google

First Version of Amazon

First Version of "Thefacebook"

First Version of Twitter

First Version of LinkedIn

First Version of Uber

First FitBit

If you're currently building your "v1.0", may this be a refreshing reminder of where some of the most used products today started out.

What else would you include on this list?

Let me know!

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Thanks for Reading!

Have a great week!

-Lisa ✨

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