Lessons from Brian Norgard

Brian Norgard is a serial entrepreneur and product leader who was chief product officer at Tinder and is an angel investor. — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).

On Product & Simplicity

Norgard is a staunch advocate for simplicity and focus in product development. He believes that the best products are those that do one thing exceptionally well and are easy to use.

On One Singular Thing: Norgard: "what is that one thing that you're doing that singular thing that is making their life better." — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On Simple, Fun and Useful: Norgard says the best product people "reduce it down to something really really simple fun and useful." — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On Reductionist Thinkers: Norgard: some of the greatest products ever invented "come from people that were really reductionist thinkers." — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On Second-Guessing: Norgard: "one of the hard parts about building products and challenging the status quo and creating companies is you second-guess yourself you want to do more you want to add more you want to create more." — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On Simplest Form First: Norgard: "these incredible innovations are generally reduced down to the simplest form at first." — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On Making Everyone Happy: Norgard: "If your aim is to make all your users happy, you will fail." — Podcast Notes: The Twenty Minute VC with Brian Norgard.
On Existing Behaviors: Norgard: "It's much better to find existing behaviors and extend and amplify them." — Podcast Notes: The Twenty Minute VC with Brian Norgard.
On New Behaviors: Norgard: "I fundamentally do not believe in new behaviors." — Podcast Notes: The Twenty Minute VC with Brian Norgard.
On Early Adopters: Norgard: "Worship your early adopters." He says "They are everything. They'll take you to the highest of highs, they'll show you the way, and they'll help explain the product to friends." — Podcast Notes: The Twenty Minute VC with Brian Norgard.
On Who to Ask: Norgard: "Never seek product advice from people who are not consistently using your product." — Brian Norgard on prioritizing startup product features (video transcript).
On Using Your Own Product: Norgard: "Never build a product that You yourself are not consistently using." — Brian Norgard on prioritizing startup product features (video transcript).
On Close People Lying: Norgard: "the people who are the closest to you are oftentimes the people that will lie to you the most." — Brian Norgard on prioritizing startup product features (video transcript).
On Decoding Feedback: Norgard: "you have to start looking for patterns you have to start understanding what people are saying but decode what they're saying oftentimes what they say is not what they mean." — Brian Norgard on prioritizing startup product features (video transcript).

On Startups & Entrepreneurship

His experience as a serial entrepreneur and investor has given him a pragmatic and often blunt perspective on what it takes to succeed.

On Endurance: Brian Norgard: "Entrepreneurship is an endurance sport." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Marathons and Sprints: Brian Norgard: "Startups are neither marathons nor sprints. Startups are marathons with intermittent sprints." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Moving Fast: Norgard: "We've constructed a team around the idea that we are going to move obscenely fast every single day." — Building a Winning Product Team with Brian Norgard (video transcript).
On Building for Ourselves: Norgard: "We're building for ourselves here. And we're unapologetic about this." — Building a Winning Product Team with Brian Norgard (video transcript).
On Whom to Listen To: Norgard: "You need to learn who to listen to." — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On the User at the Center: Norgard: "When I sit down to think about a product, the center of it is the user." — Podcast Notes: The Twenty Minute VC with Brian Norgard.
On the Promise: Norgard: "It all starts with this promise. What are you giving them?" — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On a Failed Startup: Brian Norgard: "A failed startup is not a failed entrepreneur." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Hardcover Reading: Norgard: "I forced myself even as as old-school as this may be to try to get in 30 45 minutes of reading a hardcover book each day." — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On Learning From Mistakes: Norgard: "most of my lessons in building you know products for customers come from mistakes that I've made or mistakes I've seen other people." — Game Thinking TV, S5E10: "Brian Norgard: Simple, Fun and Useful" (video transcript).
On Product Versus Company: Brian Norgard: "Don’t confuse building a product with building a company." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Product-Market Fit Alchemy: Brian Norgard: "The first rule of product-market-fit: don’t disrupt whatever alchemy went into creating product-market-fit." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.

On Users & Customers

Norgard emphasizes a deep, almost obsessive focus on the user and understanding their true needs and motivations.

On Courage and TAM: Brian Norgard: "The TAM of your product expands or contracts proportional to the amount of courage you have." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Asking What to Remove: Brian Norgard: "Instead of asking customers what they’d like to see in the future, instead ask what they’d like removed." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Meditation: Brian Norgard: "Meditate to innovate." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Chaos and Order: Brian Norgard: "Order does not create innovation. Chaos creates innovation. But chaos always comes at a cost." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Constraints: Brian Norgard: "If you want to help someone create, give them constraints." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Great Ideas: Brian Norgard: "A great idea will haunt you." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Big Opportunities: Brian Norgard: "Big opportunities don’t feel like big opportunities at first and that’s what makes them big opportunities." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Clarity: Brian Norgard: "Nothing is clear until it’s too late." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.
On Walking and Talking: Brian Norgard: "The greatest management tool in history is a focused, leisurely walk and conversation." — www.skmurphy.com/blog/2021/08/01/brian-norgard-offers-pithy-insights-from-the-tr.

On Team & Leadership

Building and leading a team is a recurring theme in Norgard's advice, stressing the importance of speed, talent, and a shared vision.

On Moving Obscenely Fast: Brian Norgard: "we've constructed a team around the idea that we are going to move obscenely fast every single day Monday through Sunday" — www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkYh2Irp4vo.
On Building for Ourselves: Brian Norgard: "we want to build the experience that makes most sense for us not for someone else" — www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkYh2Irp4vo.
On a Symphony: Brian Norgard: "the relationship between a good product and a good business model is a lot like a symphony you know it when you hear it it all fits together it's cohesive it's elegant and it doesn't Force anything" — # Secrets of Product-Market Fit with Brian Norgard, Chief Product Tinder - Best of Airchat.
On Wall Street and the Roadmap: Brian Norgard: "upwards of 70 percent of our product roadmap was driven by expectations from Wall Street" — # Secrets of Product-Market Fit with Brian Norgard, Chief Product Tinder - Best of Airchat.
On the Golden Goose: Brian Norgard: "once you start making gargantuan sums of money there are only two goals preserve the Golden Goose and grow the Golden Goose" — # Secrets of Product-Market Fit with Brian Norgard, Chief Product Tinder - Best of Airchat.

On Life & Wisdom

Norgard's observations extend beyond the world of tech, offering concise and thought-provoking perspectives on life.

On a Second Act: Brian Norgard: "this was driven by the markets by Wall Street wasn't driven by users" — # Secrets of Product-Market Fit with Brian Norgard, Chief Product Tinder - Best of Airchat.
On Building What Users Didn't Ask For: Brian Norgard: "we invented this product for a business purpose and paid the price It ultimately failed" — # Secrets of Product-Market Fit with Brian Norgard, Chief Product Tinder - Best of Airchat.

Learn more:

Lessons from Brian Norgard

On Product & Simplicity

On Startups & Entrepreneurship

On Users & Customers

On Team & Leadership

On Life & Wisdom

Read next

Explore the surrounding system

Get the weekly briefing.