Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Gootee: Putting CTOs directly in front of users is the most powerful alignment tool

Ralph Goody · Startup Technology - Technical Founder Advice · Y Combinator · Oct 10, 2018 · at 59:07

Ralph Gootee (CTO of PlanGrid) answers an audience question on how non-technical founders should communicate feature needs to technical co-founders.

0:00 / 0:18exact quote · 18.8s
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“Get them in front of the users. Bring them to the meetings. Get them over the phone. Well, then give the questions, you know, kind of set it up a little bit where you're trying to bait the users into giving the feedback that you're looking for, or you won't get the feedback you're looking for, and maybe there's some adjustment there, too. So get them in front of users as much as you can. That's the most powerful tool you have, in my opinion.”

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Assertion Not checkable as stated
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What-if
Gootee: PlanGrid would have built faster by hiring developers earlier instead of self-coding
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