founder blind spot?
Many products are hard to explain in one sentence — especially to their own founders
You live with the idea every day.
You know the problem deeply.
You automatically fill in the gaps.
Users don’t.
That gap — between “this is obvious” and “I have no idea what this does” — feels like one of the hardest parts of building and launching.
So I’m curious:
* Have you ever been surprised by how users misunderstood something that felt obvious to you?
* Did anything actually help you break out of that “founder blind spot”?
I think there’s a lot of hidden learning here.
83 views
Replies
Siteline
Lots of hidden learning here indeed, @lightfield ! Going on a conference/meet-up where your audience is hanging out helps a lot - I think it's way more efficient to test a pitch in a live conversation, as you get instant feedback, verbal and non-verbal. I don't belong to an audience I'm building a product for, so going on a conference and pitching almost to every person I met was a big revelation. I also sensed that if your product is complex or very new, drawing analogies helps to bridge those gaps (aka it's like Uber but for pet groomers)
Vozo AI — Video localization
@davidkaufmann yup, talk to real people
i feel like the easiest way to overcome the blind spot is with a one-liner explanation + a 10 second demo
if the audience has no reaction, it's most likely they have no interest in the product. if they start asking meaningful question, you are one step closer to a conversion/lead.
and of course, LOTS OF PRACTICE is the way to go! talk to people, nonstop, and keep changing the script until you find one that strikes 80% or higher
Vozo AI — Video localization
@tinnix_he This sparked a useful reframing for me:
Founder blind spot isn’t mainly a “clarity” problem — it’s a “reaction” problem.
The job of a one-liner + 10s demo isn’t to fully explain.
It’s to trigger a response (curiosity, questions, even disagreement).
No reaction = no pull.
That’s a cleaner test than “did they understand?”
You're spot on.
It's not just founder, but author blindspot. One of the most difficult things for an author to do is write a proper summary of their book regardless if it is fiction or non-fiction.
As a chronic over communicator, I am now aware of that so that has helped a bit. Even if you are excellent at thinking ahead and predicting the needs of users you have to put yourself back into the newbie mindset and allow them to breathe.
Vozo AI — Video localization
@markbradford “Author blind spot”, nice
I’ve started optimizing less for clarity, more for reaction.
If a summary triggers real questions, it works. If not, more words don’t help.
@lightfield
Please explain.
Vozo AI — Video localization
@markbradford Some products just can’t be fully explained in one sentence.
Chasing perfect clarity is a trap.
What matters more is reaction — curiosity, disagreement, “wait, how does that work?”
People don’t need to understand everything upfront. They just need a reason to lean in.
vibecoder.date
sometimes it's as simple as forcing yourself to explain it in business language.
It's not QA finds 5 bugs a week but 10 make it to prod.
it's.
Users are impacted and it incurs costs, SLA breaches, etc. We prevent that, how, by improving QA
@build_with_aj Right. Features and benifits, What's in it for them?
"This provides end to end security blah blah blah"
Blank stare.
"You can sleep at night"
I'll take it!
As a founder, I’ve noticed the biggest blind spot is assuming users think the way we do. Things that feel “obvious” after months of building are often unclear to someone seeing the product for the first time.
What helped me was watching real users struggle without explaining anything — onboarding recordings and short user calls were eye-opening. We ended up simplifying copy, removing features from the first screen, and focusing more on outcomes than capabilities.
Founder blind spots don’t disappear, but direct user friction is the fastest way I’ve found to reduce them.
I firmly believes we just need iterate with custdev and collecting feedback. Do not avoid criticism and value insight. If you face misunderstanding it is a great news it means you can make your idea clear if you fix it.
Still I know it may be hard personally and create sort of predator syndrome. I am trying to revise myself I just need to continue and result will come :)