Transforming Remote Collaboration: The Story of Butter's Innovative Workshop Platform
Company profile
Company business details
Motivation to build the product
The founders were motivated by the challenges of remote work and the need for more engaging and effective online collaboration tools. They recognized that traditional video conferencing solutions often fell short in creating an interactive and participatory environment, which sparked the idea for Butter.Problem that their product solves
Butter solves the problem of ineffective remote meetings and workshops, which often suffer from low engagement and technical difficulties. The end users are facilitators and participants in virtual workshops who need a seamless and interactive platform to enhance their collaborative experience. Solving this problem is important as it directly impacts the effectiveness of training and collaborative efforts in a remote work environment.Their unfair advantage
Butter's unfair advantage lies in its focus on user engagement and simplifying the workshop process, allowing facilitators to manage sessions efficiently without juggling multiple tools.Strategies
Pre-Launch (Product Development & MVP)
Rapid MVP Development
Jacob Nutson and his co-founders managed to develop the MVP of Butter in just three weeks. This rapid development was facilitated by their previous experiences and the urgency created by the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed them to create a solution for remote collaboration. They utilized their backgrounds in remote work and workshops to quickly iterate and refine their product, ultimately launching it to meet the immediate needs of users struggling with existing tools.
User Interviews for Problem Validation
Jacob Knudsen and his co-founders conducted extensive user interviews to validate the problem they aimed to solve with Butter. In the first half year after launching their MVP, Jacob personally interviewed between 300 to 500 users, including consultants, coaches, and trainers, to understand their experiences with online workshops. They focused on asking users to recount their last workshop experiences, identifying pain points and workarounds, which helped them refine their product to better meet user needs.
Launch Stage
User Interviews for Product Development
During the launch stage, Jacob and his team conducted extensive user interviews, with Jacob personally interviewing 30 to 50 users weekly. This hands-on approach allowed them to gather valuable feedback on user needs and pain points, which informed product development. They learned that users faced challenges in connecting planning tools with actual workshop sessions, leading to adjustments in their product features to better serve their audience.
Product Hunt Launch
Butter's initial launch on Product Hunt was meticulously planned, involving a month of preparation. The team activated their existing community and engaged with the Product Hunt community on launch day. They encouraged their users to support them, responded to comments, and shared valuable content. This strategy resulted in significant visibility, user acquisition, and interest from investors, effectively putting Butter on the map.
Redrafting PMF Survey
After launching Butter, the team introduced a Product-Market Fit (PMF) survey to gauge user satisfaction. They sent this survey to users who had hosted multiple sessions, asking how disappointed they would be if they could no longer use Butter. However, they discovered that the original phrasing of the question led to confusion, especially among non-native English speakers. To improve the accuracy of the feedback, they revised the question to 'If you couldn’t use Butter anymore, how would you feel?' This adjustment resulted in more valid responses, helping the team better understand user sentiment and refine their product.
Learn more about Butter
How to run your start-up as smooth as Butter | Jakob Knutzen Co-Founder & CEO of Butter
Jakob Knutzen @Butter. Selling SaaS before building it
