Being a science-oriented founder and focusing all the time on the functional aspect of your product might be harmful.

Yes, I’ve said yesterday that you should focus a lot on what you like doing. And being oriented towards STEM fields means you’ll probably love coding or doing other things (I’ll mention an example in a few sentences).

But that might not be the answer.

Writing a scientific paper is likely a waste of time in your case. It’s a noble thing, yes. But the impact of Twitter searching a keyword of a problem you solve — say you’ll search for “expenses” because you’re building an expenses manager — would yield a better result.

Searching that and responding to 10 tweets a day (more, if possible). Spend the hours you would on the scientific paper and put it there.

Yes, don’t listen to me if you’re in a field like blockchain and you truly need to put that out — but I’ve seen scientific founders try and get away from the actual responsibilities of a company by doing this.

What good is your perfect product if no one hears about it?

Say the marketers towards the scientists.

Marketing-oriented founders

On the other side, maybe marketing-oriented founders should spend more time on learning the ins and outs (at least on a surface level) of the technical aspects.

It’d give them a better understanding of what is doable, what is not and avoiding the lost hours/days of “That would take very long to build, are you sure you want to do it?”

But since I’m more of this type of founder, I won’t be able to point at what we do wrong in the same way that I do for those other types.

What good is your product that everyone knows about if it doesn’t do that much?

Say the scientists towards the marketers.

The bottom line

The answer, of course, is somewhere in-between. Going out of your way just a tiny bit to learn about the other side. And then hiring someone that can take of that aspect.

What about the “you should only do what you like” idea?

Focus on what you like doing, but don’t lose yourself in that for the sake of pleasure. Be practical and find your balance. An 80-20 balance, not a perfect one.

Unless you just want a nice little side-project.

About Ch Daniel

I run Chagency_, an experiences design agency — we help SaaS CEOs reduce user churn. I write daily on this topic and in similar areas. Here are my best pieces.

If I’ve helped you, follow me here and reach out: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email | Quora | YouTube 

I’ve also founded an app that went 0-200K users in its 1st year — chdaniel.com/app

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Illustration credits: Ilya Kastenka