Y’all. A 75% open rate?! I’m incredibly glad you’re enjoying the issues! As promised, freebies are coming but I’ve had a bit of a setback… (see below).

I got T-boned by a car last week.

Fractured skull. Brain bleed. The works. (Don't worry, I'm recovering well, just taking things a bit slower than usual.)

But even with my banged-up brain, I had a crystal-clear product insight during a client call yesterday that I need to share with you.

Here's the thing: your users aren't connecting with your product because they don't see themselves in it.

Let me explain.

I was working with a client who's creating a platform to help people discover and apply for social services and benefits programs. Their initial interface was... fine. Serviceable. Perfectly logical.

But it wasn't working.

Then my client said something that sparked an "aha" moment: "People don't know that Medicaid pays for ramps in some places."

And there it was. The problem wasn't the interface itself - it was that users couldn't see how these programs connected to their actual needs.

People don't wake up thinking, "I need to apply for Medicaid today." They wake up thinking, "I need a bloody ramp so my mum can get into her house."

I've found that most founders build products based on how they organise information, not how their users actually think. It's a classic case of "the curse of knowledge" - once you understand your solution, you forget what it's like to not understand it.

Your users aren't looking for your product category. They're looking for a solution to their specific, immediate problem.

I immediately thought about Amazon's approach. When you visit Amazon, you don't see a list of categories and manufacturers. You see products displayed in multiple contexts, through multiple entry points, all designed to connect with different user needs.

This is precisely what non-technical founders miss when building products: you need to create multiple entry points to the same solution based on how users actually think about their problems.

In my client's case, instead of organising everything by program name (Medicare, SNAP, etc.), we're redesigning the experience to include:

Every program can appear in multiple places, with different images and descriptions that speak to different user needs.

Think about the last time you bought something online. You probably didn't start by browsing categories. You either:

You can spot this exact difference between Apple Music and Spotify's approach to helping users discover content, too.

Apple Music takes a more traditional approach—clean categories, organised by content type, with a fairly straight forward search interface. It works, but it assumes you know what you're looking for.

Spotify, on the other hand, has mastered multiple entry points. Their search page is brilliant because it combines search and browse in a way that works whether you know exactly what you want or you're just in the mood for "something good."

Notice how they present the same content through different lenses: mood-based playlists, activity-based suggestions, recently played, and contextual recommendations.

The result? Spotify keeps users engaged longer because they've made discovery feel natural (playful, even) rather than like work.

Your product can work the same way. Users should be able to find your solution whether they're actively hunting for it or just stumbling across it whilst trying to solve a related problem.

Here's my process for implementing multiple entry points:

I tell my clients all the time: if users aren't engaging with your product, it's rarely because the product itself is bad. It's usually because you're not connecting the dots between their lived experience and your solution.

Think about it: When was the last time you bought something because it was in the "right" category? You bought it because it promised to solve a specific problem you had, in a way that made sense to you.

This is why I'm constantly pushing founders to stop thinking about their product in terms of features and start thinking about it in terms of entry points.

Look at your product right now. How many different ways can users discover your core solution? If the answer is "just one" or "maybe two," you're missing opportunities to connect.

Create at least three new entry points this week. Different visuals, different copy, different emphasis - all leading to the same solution.

Because when users see themselves in your product, they don't just use it - they champion it.

PS — Did this spark any ideas for your product? I'd love to hear them. And if you know someone who's struggling with user engagement, please forward this their way - sometimes all it takes is looking at the problem from a different angle.

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