People buy products... right?

Hey friends 👋 You know the pattern: founder builds the thing, founder lists the features, founder waits for customers to notice how obviously great it is. Very compelling! But only for the founder. This week, Cameron and JDM continue the Startup Pseudoscience Series with one of the sneakiest myths in startup land: people buy products. We steelman the case first, because products are tangible. Features are visible. Specs feel objective. Money does, in fact, get exchanged for the thing. Except the thing is not the point. Customers are buying a problem solved, an outcome reached, and a future state they can actually imagine. A drill bit is not about a drill bit. It is not even about the hole. It is about getting art on the wall without creating a new problem in the process. From Command strips to Juicero to Instagram filters, we dig into why feature-first messaging falls flat, why “better, faster, cheaper” usually is not enough, and how switching costs protect the status quo. Then we get practical: jobs to be done, customer discovery, needs/wants/fears, and experience maps as a way back from product obsession to actual customer problems. Plus, in frivolous thoughts: Line of Duty, fancy Japanese whiskey glasses, spherical ice, shaken espresso, and the deeply relatable pain of paying for two Prime accounts because switching costs are real. As always, thanks for listening. —Cameron and JDM Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 02:15 Steelmanning the product myth 05:30 People buy problems solved 12:45 Features, outcomes, and jobs to be done 25:00 Customer discovery and experience maps 40:00 Frivolous Thoughts This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zerototraction.substack.com