Is Building for Yourself a Competitive Advantage or a Risky Approach?

As one of the co-founders of Palette, I find myself in a unique position—not only am I leading product development, but I’m also an active user of the platform. This dual role as both the founder and an ideal customer profile (ICP) has its fair share of upsides and downsides, which many product leaders can relate to. It begs the question: is building for yourself an advantage, or does it come with blind spots?

Experiencing the Problem Firsthand: The Pros of Being a User-Founder

One of the biggest benefits of being a user-founder is the firsthand experience of the problem you’re trying to solve. For me, travel inspiration often felt scattered across different platforms. I’d find myself saving inspirations on social media, bookmarks, and notes—only to struggle when it came time to organize them into actionable plans. This frustration was the catalyst for Palette.

The personal connection to the problem means I have an intuitive sense of what needs to be fixed and improved. When testing features, I experience them exactly as our target users would. This allows for faster iterations, and I can prioritize enhancements that align with real pain points. The experience of living through the problem provides clarity about the most critical features to build first.

When Tunnel Vision Creeps In: The Cons of Building for Yourself

However, with this closeness comes a risk: tunnel vision. As much as my personal experience drives Palette’s evolution, it can be easy to overlook use cases outside of my own. My particular approach to travel planning might not align with how others organize their inspirations, and assuming that my experience is universal could mean missing out on wider needs and behaviors.

To counteract this, I constantly remind myself that while Palette works for me, it must cater to a variety of users with different needs. Without stepping back and actively seeking other perspectives, I risk over-prioritizing features that don’t resonate with a broader audience.

Turning Intuition into Action: Balancing Feedback and Personal Insight

To avoid getting trapped in my own perspective, I’ve developed a system that balances my intuition as a founder with consistent user feedback. Here’s how I do it:

1. Regular Feedback Loops: I make it a priority to consistently gather user feedback through surveys, interviews, and user testing. This keeps my decisions grounded in real data rather than assumptions.

2. A/B Testing and Prototyping: Instead of assuming that a feature works simply because I find it useful, we put our ideas through rounds of testing and gather data on actual user engagement. This prevents us from over-indexing on the founder’s vision alone.

3. Collaborating with Team Members: By involving team members who have diverse perspectives and experience, we’re able to collectively shape the product to be more inclusive. This collaborative approach helps filter out any potential founder bias.

Reframing Founder Experience as an Empathy-Driven Advantage

While tunnel vision is a potential pitfall, the founder-user perspective can also be reframed as a powerful advantage—especially when used to build empathy into the product. Founders who experience their product firsthand have the opportunity to design with a deep emotional connection to the problem. It’s not just about solving a need; it’s about understanding why users are frustrated, where they’re confused, and how the product can simplify their lives. This can be a massive competitive advantage when leveraged correctly.

Strategies to Keep the User-Centric Focus in Founder-Led Development

The key is finding ways to ensure that the user remains at the heart of product development:

• User Personas and Diverse Testing Groups: By building detailed personas and expanding our testing pool, we actively check our assumptions and ensure the product works for a variety of users, not just those with my preferences.

• Objective Decision-Making Tools: Tools like user behavior analytics, heatmaps, and usability testing provide objective data that balances the subjective input I bring as both founder and user.

• Cross-Functional Teamwork: I regularly engage with different departments—UX design, engineering, and marketing—to triangulate insights and challenge assumptions. This helps to create a well-rounded approach to problem-solving.

What’s Your Experience?

Have you built something that you also use? What advantages or challenges have you faced along the way? Share your thoughts, insights, and experiences—I’d love to hear from fellow founders and product creators who’ve walked a similar path. Let’s continue the conversation and learn from each other’s journeys.