Playbook · Idea / prototype to Searching (pre-PMF)
Idea and Searching × Stay
Out of season. There are no veterans to keep yet; endgame features built now protect users you don't have. The work belongs in Value and Start.
- M0 Idea / prototype
- Is there a real itch, felt often enough?
- M1 Searching (pre-PMF)
- Who, if anyone, is it a must-have for?
- Stay
- Why do veterans stay when a competitor copies the features?
M0-M1 × Stay
The playbook
Why it's out. Stay asks why veterans remain when a competitor copies the features. Before a segment retains, there are no veterans, so status tiers, veteran roles, collections and recaps have no one to serve. Spend the effort on finding the segment that needs the product.
Not now
- Status tiers, veteran roles and collectionsThere are no veterans to serve yet; the work is upstream.
- Annual identity artifact (yearly recap)A yearly recap needs a year of history and a large base.
- Loyalty tiers without devaluationTiers work once a large repeat base exists.
- Points and badges layerPoints bolted onto a weak loop don't hold people.
How to measure it
Limits
What we don’t claim
- Seasons are defaults for the cell. Evidence from your own product can move a technique in or out of season.
- A playbook names candidate moves; which one goes first depends on the binding constraint in your product.
Sources
Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.
Your product
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