I was listening to NPR’s awesome podcast titled, ‘How I Built This’, which had a segment on the Instagram founders. After I listened to the half hour interview with Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, I asked myself what would be the two important take-aways from the podcast. Here’s what stood out for me.
They quoted Eric Ries, the author of ‘The Lean Startup’ who said its important to have conversations with people who liked your product, why they liked your product and take steps to make it even better. Many times, we pay higher importance to things people don’t like and work at solving those.
Another important takeaway is that they made Instagram open to follow. Back in 2010, it was common for most social networks to be closed and one can only follow someone else if both are connected as friends. Instagram was among the earliest social networks where anyone can follow anyone else. This means you can follow any celebrity, sports star or politician. This was a key point for Instagram’s growth. Now, these features are used in most social networks, including Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
