Company
Date Published
Author
Des Traynor
Word count
586
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

At some point every product owner wonders how to make their product go viral, as a thought experiment. Viral products are rare and sustainable businesses built on viral promotions even rarer. Even successful products like Dropbox had a viral factor below one due to various factors such as excellent product/market fit, daily usage, high retention, and incentivised sharing. Understanding the sharing mechanism is crucial, which involves a lossy process where not everyone shares, not every share is seen, and not every click results in a new user. This process must transcend devices, platforms, screen sizes, and more to be effective. Defining a clear sharing mechanism is key, involving identifying all meaningful shareable events in the product and sharing across multiple platforms, such as social media, to maximize reach and network effects.