Talk to more users sooner

Here's a fun lesson. Sharing while it's fresh.

Last week we built a new feature. Updated how a visualization works. It's now obvious when your plasmid DNA has 2 of a thing.

Internally this caused debate. Does it look like a bug? Will people get confused? Should you ever have 2 of a thing? Usually there's 1 of the thing. This is weird.

A few of us said "Ship and find out".

We shipped, made a video, and shared on twitter. Tweeting things we work on is a new experiment for us. This is our 4th.

New update: Promoters and origins of replication are now easier to spot in your results summary!

No more guessing—just clear, intuitive visualizations. pic.twitter.com/yQaBtfvxzw
— plasmidsaurus (@plasmidsaurus) March 4, 2025

The only comment we got was "omg thank you! I'm working on plasmids with 2+ of a thing!!".

You gotta ship to find out what's working. Ship, measure, adjust. Focus on the problem, not the solution. Build products, not projects.

This is what get us over the water, not build us a bridge is about. The goal is to focus on the customer and their needs. The more feedback you can get faster, the better.

Cheers,
~Swizec