Onboard 10 real users who are actively using your product — usage data or testimonials as proof.
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Current milestone
Identify and personally contact 50 target users
1–2 weeks (outreach + logging)
Write a list of 50 specific, named people who match your target user profile and have the problem you're solving right now. For each person, note how you know them (or how you'll reach them) and what specifically about their situation makes them a fit. Then contact all 50 — not with a pitch, but with a question about the problem you're solving. The goal is conversations, not demos.
Proof required
Submit your 50-person list (names optional if you prefer to anonymise — role/context is sufficient), the outreach message you used, and a log showing which contacts responded and what the response was (positive/neutral/negative).
What gets checked
All 50 are specific people with context explaining why they fit — 'people who work in HR' is not a person.
Outreach message asks about the problem, not about your product — it passes the test of 'could I send this before the product exists?'
Response log is complete for all 50 contacts — not just the positives.
Resources
Foundation: start here · Depth: go deeper · Mastery: for the dedicated
Foundation
YC — How to Talk to Users
Depth
Paul Graham — Do Things That Don't Scale
Onboard 10 users to the actual product
Retain 7 of 10 through second active session
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