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David Barlev shared thisHeading to Vegas for Shoptalk in a few weeks with Mohamed RACHADA（穆海风） There’s no shortage of trends in retail right now. What interests me most is how teams are making real product and technology decisions behind the scenes. Looking forward to thoughtful conversations. If you’re also attending, drop me a message and let's find some time to connect. #ShoptalkSpring #Shoptalk #RetailMeetsAtShoptalk
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David Barlev posted thisGoji has helped launch 500+ digital products. Here are 6 things the winners always get right: 1. They validate before they build. They test ideas with real users, define their audience clearly, and confirm the problem is worth solving. 2. They build the business case first. They map how the product creates value, align features to revenue, and know how they'll reach users. 3. Their launch plan adapts. Markets shift. User needs change. They stay flexible and adjust as they go. 4. They start marketing early. They build anticipation ahead of launch, activate the right channels, and make sure users are ready. 5. They sync every touchpoint. Product, support, analytics—it’s all aligned and working together before day one. 6. They treat launch day as the beginning. After launch, they collect feedback, move fast, and keep iterating. What am I missing here?
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David Barlev posted thisA client once told me, “We hate two things: what we have, and anything new.” This is universal. We hate broken systems, but we also fear change. This tension is at the core of every digital transformation, and it forces us to choose between slowly improving the old system and scrapping it to start fresh. Here’s how I like to think about it 👇 If your platform isn’t performing, you’ve got two choices: 1) Evolution – steady, precise upgrades 2) Revolution – tear it down and rebuild Go with evolution when: → Users are still engaged → The foundation isn’t totally broken → You need quick wins → Budget is tight → Risk tolerance is low Choose revolution when: → Tech debt is dragging everything down → Users are fed up → You need a fresh direction → Long-term growth matters more than short-term comfort → You’re ready to invest Think of it like debt: evolution is making monthly payments. Revolution is writing a big check to wipe it out. When we work with clients, we help them decide by breaking down the current product: A) What stays B) What goes C) What’s missing When the “what goes” list gets too long, it’s time to tear it down and start from scratch.
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David Barlev posted thisThe App Store and Google Play take 15-30% of your gross revenue. There’s no silver bullet to solve this, but there are 3 ways to fight back: 1) External memberships If your app grants access to a broader service, not just in-app features, you might be able to handle payments off-platform. Just know that this needs to be baked into your business model and UX from day one. 2) Onboard on web Let users sign up and pay on your site, then log in through the app. This introduces some friction, but it saves 30%. We’ve seen this work well when the flow is clean. 3) Price it in Simplest move: absorb the fee into your pricing. It's not ideal, but often worth it for access to the best distribution platforms in the world. If you're just getting started, don’t over-optimize for fees on money you're not making yet. Focus on traction. Validate your model. Optimize later. For so many successful businesses, the app store fee is just the cost of doing business. Other times, it’s worth the workaround. Want help figuring out what’s right for you? Let us know.
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David Barlev posted thisThere are countless ways to build an iOS app. This is unhelpful. Only one approach will actually work for your business. The challenge is identifying the build path that aligns with your goals, users, and constraints. Every technical choice involves tradeoffs between speed, cost, performance, and user experience. Here is how you can walk through these choices 👇 The first decision is platform: native, cross-platform, or hybrid. Native apps offer the highest performance and full access to iOS features. This is the right choice for complex or mission-critical products, but it requires more time and a larger budget. Cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Flutter allow for faster development across both iOS and Android with a shared codebase. This option works well when time-to-market is the top priority. Hybrid apps are best suited for simple use cases and tight budgets. They come with technical compromises that can affect long-term scalability. Once the platform is chosen, the build environment follows. Native means Swift and Xcode. For cross-platform, React Native works well for web-like experiences, while Flutter provides a UI closer to native. After these are set, the next phase is execution. This is where teams build, test, and refine the app before launch. Even the first version should feel polished. We place a strong emphasis on QA, real device testing, and beta programs. These steps reduce bugs, increase reliability, and improve App Store approval odds. At launch, distribution must be part of the plan. App Store Optimization helps with discoverability. This includes using relevant keywords in the title and description, strong visuals, and early reviews. Some products also benefit from launches on Product Hunt or inclusion in curated indexes. Many apps with strong core functionality fail to gain traction because distribution was treated as an afterthought. There is no single perfect formula for building apps, but the key is making clear, strategic decisions that align with the business model, product requirements, and user expectations.
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David Barlev posted thisYour UI isn’t the real problem. It’s just an easy scapegoat. A $5B+ financial marketplace came to us CONVINCED that their outdated design was tanking conversions. The fact was that their onboarding flow was hemorrhaging users, and their hypothesis was that the dated UI was killing trust. But that wasn’t it. We could’ve cashed the check and rebuilt their UX from scratch. It would’ve looked great and changed almost nothing. Instead, we tested. User interviews and churn analysis told a different story: the platform was demanding Social Security numbers without a shred of context. No explanation. Just: “Give us your most sensitive info. Now.” And that’s exactly where users were churning. So we left the UI basically untouched. We just: → Explained *why* we needed each piece of info → Broke the process into smaller, digestible steps → Used progressive disclosure → Dropped in real trust signals Same UI. 40% lift in conversions. This happens all the time. Teams point to aesthetics, but the real blockers are usually clarity and trust. That’s what you need to build into your product, not just prettier interfaces.
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David Barlev posted thisIf I had a dollar for every time someone said, “This idea just needs a good dev,” I could bankroll the project myself. But ideas are cheap. What actually matters is if it solves a real problem and actually works. When we’re developing early-stage product strategy, we always start with frameworks to arrive at ideas that solve real problems and actually work. Here are 3 we lean on consistently: 1) Problem-Solution 2) Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) 3) SCAMPER Problem-Solution is about cutting through the noise and getting to the pain. It starts with simple but critical questions: → What’s broken? → What’s annoying people every day? Jobs to Be Done pushes that further. It’s not just “what’s the pain,” but “what’s the job your product needs to do?” For example, no one wants a budgeting app. They want to stop feeling stressed about money. That shift changes how you build. SCAMPER is great when someone comes to us with a blank slate—“I want to do something in health tech, but not sure what.” It’s a creativity tool that helps remix what already exists into something new. It stands for: → Substitute – What can we swap in to make this better? → Combine – What if we merged two things? → Adapt – Can we borrow from another industry? → Modify – Can we simplify or enhance a feature? → Put to Another Use – Could this serve a different audience? → Eliminate – What can we strip out? → Reverse – What happens if we flip the script? These frameworks aren’t rigid silos. We often start in one and end up blending in elements from the others. That’s the point. Great products are the result of strong mental models, smart questions, and repeatable processes.
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David Barlev posted thisMost UX problems are not unique. They’re repetitive, predictable, and preventable. And they don’t come from bad designers. They come from these 5 things 👇 After running UX audits across everything from scrappy SaaS products to complex enterprise tools, one thing has become incredibly obvious to us at Goji: The vast majority of UX problems trace back to issues with how decisions are made, validated, and reinforced over time. Here are five patterns we see over and over: 1. Invisible Friction That Kills Adoption Quietly Nothing’s broken. Users can “complete” tasks. But it takes just enough extra thought that they disengage. No one complains. They just stop coming back. 2. Design Systems That Aren’t Enforced You’ve got a component library. But in practice? There are 5 buttons that do the same thing. And spacing, behavior, and patterns shift from page to page. That creates UX debt that compounds fast. 3. UX Decisions Driven by Stakeholders, Not Users Sometimes you can see internal politics reflected in the UI. You can tell that a feature exists only because someone influential asked for it. And it doesn’t add any value for users. 4. Simplistic Metrics You’re tracking events and funnel steps. But do users understand what they’re supposed to do? Are they just clicking around because they can’t follow the flow? Activity ≠ adoption. 5. Cosmetic Changes Mask Structural Issues Most UX issues aren’t visual. They’re systemic. Without ownership, feedback loops, and alignment across design, product, and engineering, visual updates are just lipstick on a pig. One of the most counterintuitive things we’ve seen in over a decade of UX audits is that more feedback ≠ better UX. If your team doesn’t have the structure and systems to handle this feedback, it’s useless. You will just get flooded with support tickets, surveys, and interviews... and then still struggle. It will make you chase edge cases and fragment the product. UX needs to be treated like a system because it is one. Bring up these 5 points with your team and improve your system. And if you want guidance, let us know.
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David Barlev posted thisMost digital products don’t fail because of bad code. They fail because nobody asked: “Why are we building this?” Users expect products to actually solve something for them, not just look pretty. And organizations expect those products to drive growth or impact. One product needs to do both things. That’s where strategy comes in. A solid product strategy connects all the dots between: → What are we trying to achieve? → Who’s it for? → Why would they care? → How does this support the bigger mission? → How does this create business impact? This doesn’t stop at launch. A product strategy (in theory) guides the roadmap, shapes the UX, informs the stack, and anchors every decision. Done right, it’s what ensures your product actually lands. Done wrong, it will guarantee a failure faster than any poor architecture ever could.
David Barlev commented on a post
3mo
Congrats Michael Joson !!
David Barlev replied to a comment
5mo
Linda Hafstad haha my go-to is ‘have your brother-in-law give it a try’
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David Barlev liked thisDavid Barlev liked thisA lot of what you hear on stage at Shoptalk this week: AI, personalization, omnichannel, retail media. What’s more interesting is what operators are actually talking about in the hallways. A few themes coming up repeatedly: • Pressure on contribution margin, not just growth • More scrutiny on paid efficiency and incrementality • Teams being asked to do more with less, especially across channels • Less tolerance for heavy discounting as a growth lever • A shift toward retention, LTV, and merchandising as core growth drivers None of this is particularly new. But the intensity around it is. Feels like the conversation has shifted from “how do we grow faster” to: “How do we grow profitably and sustainably.” Curious if others at Shoptalk are seeing the same thing.
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David Barlev liked thisDavid Barlev liked thisI'm looking forward to moderating a session with California State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant, Chief Robert Garcia , and Chief Jon O'Brien on Wednesday morning at the WUI Conference in Reno. It's an important time for this conversation to happen and what a great group of leaders to have it with. If you're headed to WUI, make sure to stop by this panel on Wednesday morning! And stay tuned for some exciting announcements from team Intterra. More info: https://bit.ly/4rOzidu #TrustTheBadge #AwareCA #Intterra
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David Barlev liked thisDavid Barlev liked thisWonderful evening at The Shed (NY) last night celebrating Markets, Momentum, and Women Who Lead. Always so grateful for and in awe of the market-moving women leaders in my life like Jerilyn Castillo McAniff - thank you for including me in this powerful gathering. And thank you to Bloomberg, Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., Brookfield, Allspring Global Investments, Principal Asset Management and Nuveen, a TIAA company for your continued visible and important leadership in this space.
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David Barlev reacted on thisDavid Barlev reacted on thisLast week I was at an 8-person founder breakfast in Aspen. Guy goes around the table and asks everyone how they're using AI day-to-day. I was super embarrassed to answer the question, but I did. Me: “I don’t.” Everybody looked at me like I had five heads. The guy sitting next to me said he uploaded his DISC personality test to Claude and used it as a thought partner to identify blind spots on his way to work, someone else stacked agents on agents to run their entire GTM… You get the point. I mean I’ve tried. I try to use Claude to help me with posts for a while, then I stop. I try to use it as a thought partner to help me with strategic things, then I stop. I read an article about how if you just use it for 1h/day for a year you will understand the gravity of what’s coming. I’d do that for two days, then stop. When I walked out of that breakfast, I shared my embarrassment with one of the Founders at the table. He posed a pretty interesting question. “Maybe we should all be asking ourselves how you are running your life in such a way where you can be super high leverage WITHOUT using AI.” I thought about that for a while.... Many people think it’s nuts that I’m a CEO of a $30m ARR SaaS and don’t have an executive assistant. But I ask people why they have them: “They book my travel” (well I don’t travel much) “They schedule my meetings” (I use Calendly) “They do my personal errands” (I don’t even know what this means) “They handle my email” (I don’t want someone to handle my email) I think I’ve managed to simplify my work life to the point where I feel like I don’t need much help or many more tools. On Monday, I’m in internal meetings all day. On Tuesday, I write posts and make content. On Wednesday morning, I have a marketing meeting. The rest of the week is trying to figure out what’s next. What’s the takeaway? That guy who asked me what I was doing different may have been on to something. What if half the things people use AI for never ACTUALLY needed to be done in the first place? Maybe the best tool is a simple life.
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David Barlev liked thisDavid Barlev liked thisEveryone wants to "leverage AI" right now. But VERY FEW know where they actually stand. That's why we built a comprehensive assessment that gives you a real answer in minutes. Click here: https://lnkd.in/d8N8J6be It checks what's really in place across your org, including: ✅ Strategy ✅ Data ✅ Skills ✅ Tech stack ✅ Automation ✅ Governance ✅ Experimentation ✅ ROI tracking It also looks at public data about your company to make the results more accurate. At the end, you get a personalized report that shows: • Where you're strong • Where the gaps are • What to focus on next No sign-up. No filler. Just clarity you can act on. So if you're ready to FINALLY get ahead with AI, this Readiness Assessment is your next step: https://lnkd.in/drK5aH9N P.S. For a limited time, I'm offering a free 1-on-1 review call exclusively for people who complete this assessment. Normally reserved for clients only.
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David Barlev liked this📈 3 Million Tracking Events surpassed on Hansel Medical!! 🤯 Just 3 months ago we crossed 1 Million... We've already 3x'd the volume. It's only going to become bigger and bigger––can't wait. #orthopedic #medicaldevice #tracking #realtime #networkeffect #softwareDavid Barlev liked thisIn tech, we all love to talk about velocity... but I'm not talking about *that* velocity... It was only a couple of weeks ago I posted about how we've captured 2 million tracking events from our apps and Hansel tags in the field embedded with customers - and now we're over 3 million, just 1 month later... 🚀 Our customers are tagging more of their precious inventory using Hansel's platform giving them insight they never had before. This allows them to make faster decisions, locate items and become more efficient. Hansel's mobile apps don't just relay tracking information - they empower teams in the field to schedule, locate and plan everything they need to. We've got more to come... stay tuned...
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David Barlev liked thisDavid Barlev liked thisConference season is back, and so is Shoptalk Spring in Las Vegas. I’ll be there with our Founder & Head of Strategy, David Barlev, eager to learn how product and digital transformation teams are modernizing legacy systems and leveraging technology to drive measurable impact. If you’ll be attending as well, drop me a message. I would love to connect. https://lnkd.in/eftYspJn #ShoptalkSpring #Shoptalk #RetailMeetsAtShoptalk
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Goji Labs
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