The Golden Gate Bridge & Great Products

November 26, 2020

A lot of products are being built in India; some of them are insanely great and solve real problems. But a fair share of these ends up being copycats or mere clones of some other product somewhere else.

A great product…a useful product should solve a problem for the users. While we start building something with this core tenet in our mind, the final thing ends up being something else. It has been difficult for me to put in clear terms what a product should be like to the user.

Jack Dorsey, in his 2013 lecture at Berkeley Engineering gives an analogy between a great product and the Golden Gate Bridge.

“A bridge has one job, getting people from point A to point B, and not fall. When a bridge does its job really well, it disappears.”

I felt it was such a beautiful way to put the product and what it means to the user in perspective. The product provides such a seamless experience that the user forgets about its existence. Like in the case of bridges, the user only thinks about getting to point B.

“But some bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge are so well done and stunning that they take your breath away. It’s a joy and a delight to go from point A to point B.”

Now there are some products which apart from providing an intuitive experience provide gratification or joy to the user. Simply said breathtaking. Such breathtaking products can’t be copied. They are made with passion and solve real problems. The user will appreciate the beauty and quality of the product each time they use it.

The Golden Gate Bridge was built in 1933. With a small team of 1300 people, the construction was finished ahead of time and under budget. That shows the power of a small team. You can be nimble and create great products.

In India, the excessive focus on funding has taken the spotlight away from solving problems. Our aim should be to build something so useful that people talk about it, remember it.

With Square, Jack aims to give time back to people. To make their payments so easy that they can focus on more important things. There are only very few startups like that in India.

To solve a problem, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a novel idea. It can be an improvement to an already existing system. Like Zerodha, which changed the Indian perception of trading being something not accessible to common people.

In this trend/feature chasing world, focusing on and solving the right problem can make all the difference. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, these solutions will stand the test of time and the product will amaze its users.

Have a vision and build something we can look at and draw inspiration from. Every single day.