Taimi celebrates its 7th Birthday! Cheer with us and check out some insights from our CBDO Helen ??
Today marks seven years since Taimi was first released. It's been a rollercoaster of happy and sad moments, right and wrong decisions, and countless insights. But in the end, we’ve created a product loved by millions that’s truly making a difference. Here are a few lessons I’d like to share with young startup founders: 1?? Your audience is your best guide. I still see many products launching without really understanding their audience’s needs. When I joined Taimi, it was a very similar situation - we knew this product was needed, but we lacked in-depth research and connection with our users. We got a ton of feedback from reviews and social media, and every time we heard them, we took notes and improved our product. Now, we research and check in with our audience before launching new features, which saves us a lot of time and effort! 2?? Focus on what you do best. If I tried to list all the features we released and later removed, it would take ages! I think it's great that we did it, as we learned a lot. However, developing and supporting features used by a tiny fraction of your app users but taking up 10% of your app interface is a huge pain. We started growing faster after cutting out 50% of the app and keeping only the most valued features. So, my honest advice? Don’t overload your app with unnecessary stuff! 3?? Don’t rush into new markets. It’s tempting to go global, but it can be super expensive and resource-intensive. Yes, for some simple apps, it's not hard to do, but for more complicated apps with many features and user interaction on the platform, it's a whole new world where you need to localize the app, work on marketing in a certain location, and make sure that you're technically and mentally ready to launch there. Trust me, getting user feedback in one language is challenging enough—adding 20 makes it nearly impossible at first. So, ensure you know how to grow in one country before expanding to others! These are just a few lessons we’ve learned—there are many more, but we’ll save those for later. For now, I want to say, “Happy Birthday, Taimi!” ?? P.S. The picture is from our first Pride as a team. Featuring Alex Pasykov (he/him/his), Jake Vygnan, Diana L., Yuliya Sotska, Vita Kushmyruk & myself ??