Collect Stories of Astonishment

When working on a new SaaS product, it's imperative that you build something astonishing—especially to your early adopter users.

This isn't about marketing fluff. This is your foundation for traction.

Why Astonishment Matters

Yes, you could pump up your numbers with "growth hacking." But if you do that instead of building something people are astonished by, you've just chosen a hard life. You'll have to rely on aggressive marketing forever.

If you have a product that astonishes users, you gain users with less effort. Word spreads. Referrals happen naturally. Your early adopters become evangelists.

This is the same underlying dynamic that Net Promoter-style approaches try to measure: surprise and advocacy drive growth.^[1][2]

The goal isn't just satisfaction—it's the kind of reaction where users tell their friends unprompted. Where they tweet about you without being asked. Where they feel lucky to have found you.

What Gets Measured Gets Done

Measure your performance across the important steps of your onboarding cycle. Survey users at each stage (not verbatim, but you get the idea):

• Education: Were you impressed by how we helped you understand what our product does, and what value you specifically will get out of it?
• Setup: Would you say that we went above and beyond the normal call of duty to get you setup quickly and painlessly?
• Day 1 Value: Once you were completely setup, were you astonished by the value our product provides?
• Day 14 Value: After using the product for the past two weeks, is the value we provide growing exponentially?

Rate each on a scale of 1-10. Track the averages over time.

The Astonishment Score

Here's a simple framework: calculate your "Astonishment Score" as the percentage of users who rate you 9 or 10 on Day 14 Value.

If that number is below 40%, you don't have product-market fit yet. If it's above 60%, you have something worth scaling.

Most companies never measure this. They assume satisfaction equals retention. It doesn't. Satisfied users leave all the time. Astonished users stick.

You Don't Need Fancy Tools

Simply talk to your users. Ask them these questions. Record the scores in a place the whole team can see. Report your progress weekly.

Trying to "collect stories of astonishment" drives you to the right work. It forces you to obsess over the moments that matter.

And when you have those stories—actual quotes from users who couldn't believe how good your product was—you have the raw material for everything else: marketing, sales, fundraising, hiring.

Start collecting.

— Ry