Early Gmail users requested split-pane views because emails loaded too slowly
Gustaf Alströmer · How To Talk To Users | Startup School · Y Combinator · Dec 1, 2022 · at 11:43
This episode carries Gustaf Alströmer's own address, with nobody on the show putting questions to them. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.
Gustaf Alströmer, Y Combinator Group Partner, uses Gmail's product history to explain how user feature requests often disguise underlying usability issues.
0:00 / 0:19exact quote · 19.5s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Early days of Gmail, users were asking Paul Buchheit, the founder of Gmail, to view both the inbox and the actual email that they were reading on the same screen. Now, why would they ask for that? Well, the reason was simply that Gmail was too slow and people did not want to wait to load each of the emails in the inbox. They wanted to see everything at the same time.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Gustaf Alströmer
Alströmer: Pre-PMF startups only need founders, computers, and one engineer
“When startups get funded, every single dollar, every single energy effort should go towards trying to find product market fit, which usually is The two founders or the three founders, their computers, their apartment, and maybe one more engineer who's also pro…”
Alströmer: Post-2020 easy capital killed startups that otherwise would have succeeded
“It's very clear that, that what happened in those two years after summer, 20, 20 hurt companies. Like, it was much worse than just, like, more of the same. It hurt companies that otherwise would have been successful, because they would have had a level of disc…”
Alströmer: Most major companies scale using only one or two channels
“Most really big companies didn't use all of those channels. They use one or two channels.”
Startup marketing VPs churn frequently because founders misunderstand the role
“VP of marketing is like notoriously high churn job because, and it's not because the VP of marketing folks aren't good. It's because the founders have the wrong expectations of what those people do, and they haven't been curious enough to learn about that job.”
Alströmer: Early chiefs of staff and offices worsen startup outcomes
“It just feels natural that I should have an office manager, or I should have a really nice big office, or maybe two offices, or maybe a chief of staff, and there's, like, all of the things that, that just, like, you can look at other companies that are success…”
Alströmer: Fast hiring at seed stage usually means hiring the wrong people
“Like, maybe if I know you, I know you're a great founder, I would want to work for you, but like, for most people, this is not interesting to work for, which means the time it takes to hire will be very long, and if it goes really fast, you probably hire the w…”