Deciding which products we build

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Providing all the tools in one is a core part of our strategy.

Shipping them in the right order is key to a fast return on investment from every new product.

Products we build into the platform should:

  • Be a product that our ICP already uses, and there already is a $1bn competitor in the market.

  • Improve our other products – for example, by using or adding to customer or product data.

  • Help customers build more successful products. This doesn't just mean writing code, it means commercial stuff too.

  • Be very easy to integrate and turn on for existing customers. For example, users can enable the product without a code change

This diagram shows example products we could ship:

a diagram showing which products we could build in which order

When deciding what to prioritize, we should consider:

  • The strength of competitors

  • Whether there is someone on the PostHog team passionate about building it

At earlier stage companies, technical founders will do every role, so tools traditionally used by those further from engineering (i.e. support) are likely to get usage if built into PostHog's platform. In later stage companies, we need - for now - to remain closer to engineering tools.

If we decide to build a product, we should build the version that gets adopted earliest, to avoid having to rip and replace an existing solution. For example, we are currently working on a data warehouse. We need this to work for people who have not already got a warehouse set up – it needs to be inexpensive and simple.

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