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Do This Next

Examples

Specific enough
to actually do

These are illustrations of the kind of decision Do This Next makes and the standard of evidence behind it. They are not customer case studies. The product is new and we don’t have any yet. When we do, they’ll go here with names on them.

Six kinds of answer

Fix this first
Something is broken or unclear. Traffic sent here would be wasted.
Do this next
Somewhere specific to go, and something specific to say when you get there.
Talk to people
You don't have a marketing problem yet. You have an unknowns problem.
Stop doing this
Effort is going somewhere that won't pay you back in time.
Nothing today
Nothing is worth interrupting you for. Something is still working.
Double down
The numbers say one channel is carrying you. Feed it.

Note what’s missing: “write more content” isn’t one of the six. Producing things is sometimes the answer. It is not the default.

Fix this firstExample

Rewrite your homepage headline before you send it any traffic

Your headline says “Database tooling for modern teams”. A backend engineer scanning for three seconds cannot tell what it does or whether it is for them. Your own docs describe the product better than your homepage does.

yourapp.com

Current: “Database tooling for modern teams” Try: “Catch the migration that breaks prod, before it merges” Sub: “Schema diffs in your CI, in about 30 seconds.”

Why we’re telling you this

  • Seen on your site: Your headline names a category, not a problem. Nothing on the page says what breaks or what you fix.
  • Seen on your site: Your /docs page describes the product more clearly than your homepage does. That is backwards.
  • Seen on your site: Your signup page assumes the visitor already knows what the product is. Anyone who arrives unconvinced has nowhere to become convinced.
  • Why this rule exists: Fix the page before you fill it. Acquisition multiplies whatever your page already does.
What else did you consider?
  • Post in a devops community asking how people catch bad migrationsGood thread. Not until the page it points at doesn't waste the click.
  • Submit to six developer-tool directoriesWorth about 20 minutes. Low ceiling. It'll keep.
  • Start an SEO content planNo. Six-month payback. You need customers this month.
10 min of your dayPotential: High
Do this nextExample

Ask r/golf how societies actually handle scoring

Your buyers organise society days and the subreddit allows questions. Ask one rather than pitching: you want their words for the problem, and a question gets answers where a launch post gets removed.

The post, written for youYou post it. Nothing goes out in your name from here.

“How does everyone handle scoring for society days? Ours is a spreadsheet and a group chat and it falls apart by the ninth. Curious what actually works.”

Why we’re telling you this

  • Seen on your site: Your homepage names society organisers, and that is who is in there. The audience matches without you having to guess.
  • From your own results: You told us you launched on Product Hunt and posted twice on Reddit, with no reported outcome from either.
  • Why this rule exists: A question gets answers. A pitch gets removed, and a removal costs you the community for months.
  • You told us: You told us you have 30 minutes today. This takes fifteen of them.
What else did you consider?
  • Email three society organisersWorth doing, and harder: you would be guessing at the wording. Do this first and use what they say.
  • Post yesterday's product update on XYour last six posts there produced no measurable signups. Not today.
15 min of your dayPotential: High
Stop doing thisExample

Stop working on SEO

You've spent three weeks on a content plan for a product that needs customers this month. Organic search will pay you back in about six months, and only if you're still here. You don't need traffic in Q2. You need to know whether anyone will pay.

Why we’re telling you this

  • From your own results: Every action you've completed in the last three weeks was a content action. None of them produced a signup.
  • Seen on your site: You have 41 users and no paying customers. SEO does not answer the question you currently have.
  • Why this rule exists: SEO is a compounding channel with a long payback. It's the right investment when you already know what converts. You don't yet.
What else did you consider?
  • Publish the three posts you've already draftedSunk cost. Publishing them costs another afternoon and changes nothing this month.
Zero minutes. That’s the point.Potential: High
Fix this firstExample

Your signup fails on mobile. Fix that before anything else

The signup button on your pricing page doesn't respond on iOS Safari. It sits under the sticky footer. Roughly six in ten of your visitors are on a phone. Every bit of promotion you do right now is being poured into that gap.

yourapp.com/pricing

Sticky footer overlaps the primary CTA below 420px. Tap target is unreachable.

Why we’re telling you this

  • Seen on your site: The primary CTA is behind a fixed element at mobile widths.
  • Seen on your site: Most of your visitors arrive on a phone, and none of them convert.
  • Why this rule exists: A conversion bug beats every acquisition idea, every time. There is nothing else worth doing today.
What else did you consider?
  • Everything elseThere is no point in any of it while the button doesn't work.
15 min of your dayPotential: High
Stop doing thisExample

Don't launch on Product Hunt tomorrow

You have no testimonials, no logos, nothing on the page that says another human has used this. A launch converts attention into signups only if the page can carry the weight. Yours can't yet. Spend the week getting three users on record, then launch.

Why we’re telling you this

  • Seen on your site: No social proof of any kind on the homepage: no quotes, no usage numbers, no logos, no changelog.
  • Why this rule exists: A launch is a one-shot traffic spike. You get one. Spending it on a page that can't convert is spending it.
  • From your own results: Two of your users replied to you last week. Those are the quotes you're missing.
What else did you consider?
  • Launch anyway and iterateYou can't re-launch. The spike doesn't come back.
  • Buy ads to warm the launchSame problem, more expensive.
Zero minutes. That’s the point.Potential: Medium
Talk to peopleExample

Go and talk to five users. You don't have a marketing problem yet

Six people signed up in the last month and none of them came back after day two. More traffic would produce more of that. You still don't know why they left, and no amount of marketing will tell you. They will.

5 users, drafted intros ready

Ask one question: “What were you hoping this would do that it didn't?” Don't pitch, don't demo, don't defend the product.

Why we’re telling you this

  • Seen on your site: Six signups in 30 days, zero returned after day two.
  • Why this rule exists: Acquiring customers who immediately disappear is a way of paying to learn nothing.
  • Why this rule exists: Five conversations will teach you more this week than five channels will.
What else did you consider?
  • Run a re-engagement email sequenceYou'd be guessing at what to say. Ask them first, then write it.
  • Post in three communitiesMore people into a leaking bucket.
25 min of your dayPotential: High

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Built by Simon.

Because I kept building products and then wondering how on earth to get anyone to use them.