Founder’s Field Guide
Episode 1 Using Emotion to Design Great Products
Founder’s Field Guide

Episode 1: Using Emotion to Design Great Products

Using Emotion to Design Great Products

Rahul is the Founder & CEO of Superhuman, the fastest email experience ever made. We cover the idea of using game design & emotion in building products, the framework for achieving product market fit, and Rahul's philosophy when it comes to investing in other startups.

This episode is brought to you by:

Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out at Microsoft for Startups.

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[00:03:56] – (First question) – His interest in game design and emotion in software creation

[00:05:15] – Key elements of game design

[00:06:23] – Toys in digital software creation 

[00:08:48] – Finding success in boring software solutions

[00:11:19] – Getting confidence while building when there are no real customers

[00:14:08] – How they landed on their final product

[00:15:40] – The Superhuman Product/Market Fit Engine

[00:20:46] – Determining software price

[00:21:55] – Positioning Your Startup is Vital — Here’s How to Nail It

[00:23:09] – Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

[00:24:13] – Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price

[00:26:36] – First big break for the business

[00:29:04] – How technology companies actually grow

[00:32:15] – Branding a software 

[00:33:57] – How he evaluates a company brand as an investor

[00:36:07] – Questions to ask founders when considering an investment 

[00:37:35] – How the distribution of Superhuman worked so well

[00:41:25] – Most common question asked by VC’s about Superhuman

[00:43:00] – Why they do manual onboarding of customers

[00:43:05] – Daniel Ek Podcast Episode

[00:45:10] – Cost structure of a business looking to reach the billion-dollar valuation 

[00:47:18] – Designing for flow in software business

[00:51:21] – His design philosophy and their joy formula  

[00:58:03] – His superpower

[01:00:46] – The power of therapy 

[01:02:50] – Why he invests in other companies 

[01:05:05] – Trends in the technology space that have him excited 

[01:07:28] – The future for Superhuman

[01:10:26] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Using Emotion to Design Great Products

Introduction

Patrick
Onto the kickoff episode with Rahul Vohra. Rahul is the Founder & CEO of Superhuman, an extremely popular product for managing email. Rahul describes himself as a Computer Scientist, Gamer, Entrepreneur, and Designer. You’ll see quickly why it’s the intersection of these areas that sets Superhuman apart. We discuss why emotion matters when building products, and how other entrepreneurs can learn from his experience. Please enjoy the very first episode of Founder’s Field Guide.

Game Design in Building Products

Patrick
: Talk a bit about the key elements of game design. What makes for a good game with something as mundane sounding as email? What are the major lessons you've learned as you've experimented or tried to build that concept into the product?

Rahul
: Describe a toy in the digital software sense. What would be an example of a toy?

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