Your project is live. Someone has signed up, a few visitors have looked around, and now you need to turn that initial interest into actual use.
Start with the people closest to the problem. Talk to existing signups, invite suitable people personally, and make their first session easier. Write down what brings people in and what stops them. Each conversation gives you something concrete to work on before your next invitation.
We run RadarMakers, and our approach here is practical: build relationships you can continue through your own product, website and email. Your first 100 users give you a manageable group to learn from, provided you pay attention to what they actually do.
Decide what counts as a user
Choose one action that means someone has received the product's core benefit. For a file conversion tool, that could be downloading a converted file. For a planning app, it could be creating a plan they intend to use.
Count each person once when they complete that action. Keep visitors, email subscribers and account registrations as separate totals. Exclude your own test accounts.
This definition makes your next decision clearer. If people register but never finish the core action, spend time on their first session. If the people you contact rarely show interest, revisit who you are approaching and the problem you describe.
Track returning use separately too. The first successful session is a useful milestone, while another visit can tell you whether the product fits an ongoing need.
Talk to the people who already signed up
Open your signup list before looking for strangers. Send a personal message to someone who tried the product and ask what they hoped to accomplish.
Keep the request small. Ask one question they can answer without booking a call, such as what they were trying to do when they registered. If they respond, ask whether they managed to finish it.
For someone who stopped partway through, offer help with that specific task. Ask permission to watch them try again, or let them describe where they got stuck. Avoid walking them through every click immediately. Give them room to show you what they expected.
Record their goal, the point of confusion and any workaround. A vague complaint about complexity becomes useful when you learn that someone could not tell which file types were accepted.
After making a relevant fix, reply in the same conversation. Explain what changed and invite them to retry the task. This gives an existing signup a reason to return and tests whether your fix helped.
Reach potential users one person at a time
Describe a narrow group with a recognizable task. Freelancers who send recurring client reports are easier to approach meaningfully than everyone who wants to save time.
Build a short contact list from people you know, introductions and public business websites. For each person, write down why the task might matter to them. If you cannot identify a reason, leave them off the list for now.
Write each message around that reason. Introduce yourself, explain the task your tool helps with, and offer a small next step. That might be trying a sample or answering a question about their current workflow.
Keep any proposed wording truthful. If you have only read someone's website, say that. Describe the benefit your product currently delivers and link to the page that demonstrates it.
Send only as many invitations as you can support personally. When someone replies, learn how they handle the task today before explaining every feature. If they decline or do not want further contact, respect that. A followup should add something relevant, such as a fix for a limitation they mentioned.
Make the first useful result easier to reach
Watch what happens between an invitation and the core action you defined. Test the exact page you sent, using a fresh session and the same route a visitor takes.
Look for decisions that require knowledge a new user does not have. An empty screen may need a working example. An unfamiliar setting may need a sensible default. A failed upload should explain how to recover.
Use this short review after observing an actual attempt:
- [ ] Does the arrival page explain who the product helps and with what task?
- [ ] Is there an obvious next action?
- [ ] Can someone try a sample if they lack suitable material?
- [ ] Do required inputs explain what is accepted?
- [ ] Does the completed result show what to do next?
Choose the obstacle you actually observed and fix it. Then ask the person who encountered it to try again. Keep a note of whether they reached the useful result without your help.
Launch on RadarMakers and turn responses into questions
Once your live project gives people something to try, a RadarMakers launch is a natural step for inviting other makers to examine it.
Submission is free and requires an account. Submissions are reviewed by the RadarMakers team before going live. Use your listing's tagline, description and screenshots to explain the task your product solves, then provide its website link, logo, pricing model and category.
Submit your project to RadarMakers and invite makers to try it and share an honest assessment.
Signed-in members can upvote, comment and rate products on idea, execution, design and value. Use those different forms of response to guide your next questions. A vote records interest. A comment may explain a difficulty. A rating can suggest an area to investigate, but you still need to understand the experience behind it.
If feedback questions the value, ask what outcome would make the product useful to that person. If someone mentions confusing design, ask which step was unclear. Answer what you can, make a relevant improvement and follow up when it is available.
Keep your acquisition measure separate: a vote or rating does not count toward your first 100 users unless that person also completes your core action.
Write useful content on your own site
Use the questions from conversations as article topics. Choose a specific task your intended users need to finish and explain it clearly enough that the reader gets something useful immediately.
For a reporting tool, that could be a guide to organizing a recurring client report. Explain what to include, show a worked example and identify mistakes the reader can avoid. Label examples as examples rather than presenting them as customer results.
Add a relevant invitation where your product helps with the task. Link to a working sample or the appropriate starting screen. A reader following a guide should arrive somewhere that continues the same job.
Publish on your own site, connect related articles and keep instructions current. You can also send a helpful article directly to someone who asked the question it answers. That gives you a useful reason to reconnect.
Start with one strong page addressing a real question. Improve it when readers reveal gaps, and track whether its readers become users before committing to a large publishing schedule.
Build a simple email list people want to hear from
Give visitors who are interested but not ready a clear way to stay in touch. Place a signup form beside a relevant guide or product example and explain what subscribers will receive.
Keep the promise specific, such as occasional practical tips and product improvements. Make subscription a deliberate choice and provide an easy way to unsubscribe. Keep it separate from creating a product account.
Send a welcome message that delivers what you promised. Include one useful resource, a relevant product link and a question people can reply to. Read the replies yourself while the list is small.
For later emails, choose a concrete reason to write: a new guide, a fix for a common obstacle or an example of how to complete a task. Give readers one clear next step.
When a subscriber becomes a user, record both their original discovery source and the email that prompted them to try. This helps you see how staying in touch contributes to acquisition.
Act on feedback and keep a public changelog
Collect feedback in one place with the task behind each request. Include who encountered the issue, what they needed and how it affected their attempt to use the product.
Prioritize problems that block the core outcome. Look for repeated difficulties, but pay attention to a single report of something that prevents use entirely. Ask for clarification before building a feature whose purpose you do not understand.
Publish a simple changelog on your own site. For each shipped improvement, state what changed, who it helps and how to use it. Include a screenshot when the difference needs showing.
Send the relevant entry to people who raised that issue. Ask whether it resolves their original problem. Avoid treating every update as a reason to contact every person.
When someone has successfully used the product, you can also ask whether they know another person with the same task. Offer a short description they can pass along, leaving the introduction to them.
Keep a spreadsheet for the first 100 users
Create one row per person who completes your core action. Use an internal identifier and record only the detail you need to learn from acquisition.
Include these columns:
- Date of first successful use.
- Original discovery source.
- Specific article, email or outreach conversation.
- Core action completed.
- Main obstacle or feedback.
- Followup and returning use.
Use consistent source labels, such as personal outreach, own-site article, email, referral and RadarMakers. If several steps contributed, record the first source and the later step that prompted action. When the source is unclear, ask how they found you and leave it unknown if they do not answer.
Keep a separate small tally of invitations and visits where you can measure them. User rows alone cannot show how much effort a source required.
Review the sheet each week. Repeat the activity that brings suitable people who complete the task. Where people arrive but stall, investigate their experience. Where invitations miss the mark, adjust your audience or message.
Your next working session can start with one existing signup, one relevant personal invitation and one observed obstacle to fix. Continue those conversations, publish what you learn and give people a reason to return.
Launch your project on RadarMakers, invite honest votes, comments and ratings, and use the responses to improve the experience for the next person who tries it.
Originally published on the RadarMakers Community.
