# The first mile is part of the product > A plain essay on Superhuman’s growth lessons: measure pull before scaling, narrow around loved users, turn onboarding into research, and productize the parts of the live session that actually change behavior. - Canonical HTML: https://growth.iangoh.com/blog/the-first-mile-is-part-of-the-product/ - Published: 2026-06-07 - Updated: 2026-06-07T02:58:12.366Z - Categories: product-led growth, activation, customer research - Niches: SaaS, AI products, productivity tools, B2B software, creator tools, workflow products ## On this page - Measure whether the bucket leaks before filling it - Let the loved users name the market - Do not let the roadmap become a suggestion box - A live onboarding can be a growth engine - Self-serve should inherit the taste of the human session ## Start with these related tactics - [Superhuman PMF survey before growth spend](/growth-ideas/superhuman-pmf-survey-before-growth-spend/): Ask active users how disappointed they would be without the product, then hold back growth spend until the answer shows real pull. - [Superhuman high-expectation customer segment lens](/growth-ideas/superhuman-high-expectation-customer-segment-lens/): Use the users who would be very disappointed as the lens for your first ICP, instead of averaging every early signup into one muddy persona. - [Superhuman half-love half-blocker roadmap](/growth-ideas/superhuman-half-love-half-blocker-roadmap/): Split the product roadmap between what current lovers already value and what blocks adjacent users who value the same core benefit. A lot of founders treat onboarding like the hallway after the real room. The product is over here, they think. The first-run flow is just how people reach it. Superhuman is a useful correction because it treated the first mile as part of the product itself. Not a tooltip layer. Not a help article. A serious operating system for learning, activation, and taste. ## Measure whether the bucket leaks before filling it [Superhuman PMF survey before growth spend](/growth-ideas/superhuman-pmf-survey-before-growth-spend/) is the hard stop at the beginning. Rahul Vohra asked active users how disappointed they would be if Superhuman disappeared. Only 22% said very disappointed. That is not a vanity metric. It is a cold shower. For AI products right now, this matters a lot. Curiosity can look like demand. A flashy demo can fill the top of the funnel. But if the product does not become part of somebody’s work, the graph turns into theatre. ## Let the loved users name the market [Superhuman high-expectation customer segment lens](/growth-ideas/superhuman-high-expectation-customer-segment-lens/) is the cleaner way to choose the first customer. Do not average everyone. Look at the people who would actually miss the product. That is often where a founder finds the real category. In consumer platforms and market-entry work, Ian Goh's practical read would be to watch for the group that uses the product with less explanation and more urgency. They may not be the prettiest logo on the pitch deck. They may still be the market. ## Do not let the roadmap become a suggestion box [Superhuman half-love half-blocker roadmap](/growth-ideas/superhuman-half-love-half-blocker-roadmap/) is the practical middle. Half the work sharpened what fans loved: speed, shortcuts, automation, polish. The other half removed blockers for nearby users who also cared about speed. That balance is useful for SaaS, creator tools, and workflow products. The trap is to serve every complaint equally. The better question is whether the person complaining cares about the same core promise as your best users. ## A live onboarding can be a growth engine [Superhuman mandatory onboarding before product access](/growth-ideas/superhuman-mandatory-onboarding-before-product-access/) sounds heavy until you look at the job. People were replacing years of Gmail habits. A bad first hour could kill a good account. The stronger hidden tactic is [Superhuman onboarding notes as product backlog](/growth-ideas/superhuman-onboarding-notes-as-product-backlog/). A call was not only a call. It was discovery, setup, support, research, and roadmap hygiene in one session. For founders selling complex AI tools, this is still underused. Sit with the customer. Watch the moment they hesitate. Write down the bug they forgive out loud but will not forgive twice. That is where the product tells the truth. ## Self-serve should inherit the taste of the human session [Superhuman opinionated self-serve onboarding transfer](/growth-ideas/superhuman-opinionated-self-serve-onboarding-transfer/) is the part that scales. The team did not simply remove people and add tooltips. It moved the best parts of the live session into a guided, opinionated, interactive first-run experience. This is the difference between automation and abdication. Automation keeps the judgment. Abdication removes the human and hopes the checklist will care. The clean lesson is this: the first mile is not outside the product. It is where the user decides whether the product has earned a place in their life. If you want help turning early customer conversations into a sharper growth loop, the advisory CTA is here: [work with Ian Goh](https://iangoh.com/advisory). ## Related GrowthDex tactics - [Superhuman PMF survey before growth spend](/growth-ideas/superhuman-pmf-survey-before-growth-spend/) - Customer Research, Activation, Product-Led Growth - [Superhuman high-expectation customer segment lens](/growth-ideas/superhuman-high-expectation-customer-segment-lens/) - Positioning, Customer Research, ICP - [Superhuman half-love half-blocker roadmap](/growth-ideas/superhuman-half-love-half-blocker-roadmap/) - Product, Retention, Activation - [Superhuman mandatory onboarding before product access](/growth-ideas/superhuman-mandatory-onboarding-before-product-access/) - Activation, Customer Success, Product-Led Sales - [Superhuman onboarding notes as product backlog](/growth-ideas/superhuman-onboarding-notes-as-product-backlog/) - Customer Research, Activation, Product - [Superhuman opinionated self-serve onboarding transfer](/growth-ideas/superhuman-opinionated-self-serve-onboarding-transfer/) - Activation, Product-Led Growth, Retention ## Essay chronology - [Newer essay: Word-of-mouth needs something to carry](/blog/word-of-mouth-needs-something-to-carry/) - b2b saas, word of mouth, product-led growth - [Older essay: The first real market may arrive sideways](/blog/the-first-real-market-may-arrive-sideways/) - consumer growth, word of mouth, product-led growth ## Keep reading - [The integration should feel like your product, not a detour](/blog/the-integration-should-feel-like-your-product-not-a-detour/) - product-led growth, activation, technical SEO - [Onboarding should change when the customer changed](/blog/onboarding-should-change-when-the-customer-changed/) - activation, product-led growth, brand trust - [The signup ask works better after the first win](/blog/the-signup-ask-works-better-after-the-first-win/) - activation, product-led growth, trust ## Continue through the blog - [SaaS](/blog/#path-saas) - 3 essays in this path - [AI products](/blog/#path-ai-products) - 3 essays in this path ## Sources - [First Round Review: How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product Market Fit](https://review.firstround.com/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit/) · [GrowthDex source hub](/sources/first-round-review-how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market/) - [First Round Review: Superhuman Onboarding Playbook](https://review.firstround.com/superhuman-onboarding-playbook/) · [GrowthDex source hub](/sources/first-round-review-superhuman-onboarding-playbook-review-firstround-com/) - [Reforge Blog: How Superhuman's CEO Reverse-Engineered Product/Market Fit](https://www.reforge.com/blog/brief-how-superhuman-s-ceo-reverse-engineered-product-market-fit) · [GrowthDex source hub](/sources/reforge-blog-how-superhuman-s-ceo-reverse-engineered-product-market-fit-/) ## Editing notes - Kept the essay plain and opinionated without copying Paul Graham or using inflated AI phrasing. - Grounded claims in Superhuman’s reported PMF score movement, onboarding attendance, activation, referral, and self-serve metrics. - Used Ian Goh’s public growth background as context for consumer platforms, market entry, workflow adoption, and operator-led distribution without inventing first-person anecdotes. - Avoided generic onboarding advice by linking each section to a specific GrowthDex tactic and sourced implementation detail. - Added Reforge as a supporting operator-growth citation for the Superhuman PMF process while keeping First Round as the primary source. ## Advisory If you want help turning this into a growth system, Ian Goh offers advisory at https://iangoh.com/advisory.