You Are Not Your User (Even If You Think You Are)

Podcasts gave me ideas. Reddit gave me feedback (and a few bruises).

Hey all,

We’re one week out from launch, so I want to dedicate this post to something every founder eventually runs into - especially in a crowded space like ours: finding users and getting feedback.

If you’ve been following along (which, given we’re only three posts in, probably just means hi Mum), you might remember Ting started from a very personal moment.

I came back from a morning run, sat down to work - and spent nearly an hour just rescheduling meetings.

Chaos, every morning

I have a theory:

Most people wake up, look at their calendar, and re-plan their day based on how they feel or what’s on fire.

That’s where the chaos begins. Email chains. Conflicting links. No-shows. Polite apologies. And repeat daily.

All of it pulls us away from what we’re actually meant to be doing.

I thought: Shouldn’t AI be able to handle this by now?

If it knows your calendar and you give it a few simple preferences, why can’t it just step in and take over?

So we built Ting - an AI assistant you CC into an email, and it handles the scheduling for you. That’s it. No wasted time. No bouncing links. Just CC it, and move on.

It’s a simple idea - but surprisingly complex to build. We’re learning more and more each day.

The founder trap

There are two types of founders:

Those who are experts in their problem - and those who think they are.

I’m somewhere in between.

I’ve been the junior awkwardly requesting a meeting, the senior feeling overbooked, the agency rep chasing clients, and the platform partner setting up 15+ catch ups in a single day at Cannes Lions.

So, I feel like I’ve lived this problem from all angles. Even different countries.

And I assumed that gave me an edge and customer empathy.

But I still had to be careful not to fall into the trap of building just for me.

I thought I knew my users

I’ve spent my career in social and product marketing telling teams:

You are not your user.

It’s a reminder to remove your own bias. You might think you know what your customer wants, but unless you are them - and even if you are - your perspective is limited and warped.

But with Ting, the line blurred. This was a tool I wanted. It came from a personal problem.

Still, I had to admit: my experience wasn’t enough.

Just because I’m the one who felt it first doesn’t mean I see the full picture.
So I set out to listen.

Podcast spiral

I walk a lot. I run a lot. I listen to way too many podcasts. I had an idea, but didn’t know anything about the type of people who really need meeting scheduling tools.

Naturally, my first step was devouring every podcast episode on scheduling, productivity, and calendar tools. (I may hold the unofficial world record for listening to every Calendly podcast on Apple.)

Pro tip for early-stage founders:
Look up your competitors. Find their execs on podcasts. People overshare.
You’ll learn about their roadmap decisions, product failures, GTM strategies, pricing models, customer segments - all in their own words. It’s gold.

That research helped us skip months (I dare say, years) of wandering in the dark. I saw what others had already tried, what users rejected, and where the gaps might still be.

But podcasts alone don’t build a user base.

Finding people who need this

One insight stuck with me:

For some people, meetings aren’t just admin - they’re income.

Freelancers. Consultants. Coaches. Founders. Small business owners.

When you cancel or reschedule a meeting with them, it’s not just a minor inconvenience - it’s a missed opportunity, a delayed contract, maybe even the difference between covering rent that month and falling short.

That’s when I knew our ICP wasn’t just “busy professionals” - it was people whose livelihoods depend on time being used well. Where showing up on time isn’t just polite - it’s the business model.

So I went to Reddit - which, as it turns out, is an adventure.

Brutal but honest

If a community exists, it exists on Reddit. But it doesn’t make it easy.

It’s brutal. You’ll get downvoted, moderated, trolled. Drafts disappear. Mods delete your hard-crafted posts. And if your words even smell like self-promotion, you’re cooked.

I questioned several life choices after some threads. But eventually, I started getting the good stuff.

Like these two comments, which - no exaggeration - changed our launch strategy:

They made me realise - among many other things - that I’d made a classic mistake:

I knew what made Ting special - but I hadn’t explained it clearly. And as a marketer, realising I was pitching features instead of benefits? A small part of me died inside.

Skipping the education step

To me, email-based scheduling is obviously better than links. It feels warm and personal. It fits the way people already communicate. It happens in the moment. And it removes any weird power dynamic of sending someone a calendar link like you’re their boss. (I first saw this insight on LinkedIn - it comes up all the time.)

But I’d been thinking about this for months.

Most people haven’t. And when they first see Ting, they don’t immediately understand the “why.” That’s on me.

So we went back and reframed the story. We pulled together a short doc that explains why email-based AI scheduling is an upgrade - not just how it works, but how it actually makes meetings happen. Or as we like to say: Make Tings Happen.

We also kicked off usability testing via Userbrain, kept running customer interviews, and - most importantly - kept listening.

Feedback in the wild

Here’s what I learned:

Even how you talk about your product - what lands, where people smile, when they look at their phone - it’s all hints for your launch.

Don't be afraid to share early. Every interaction is data that sharpens your product and marketing.

The idea isn’t the moat - execution is. Even if someone copies you, they won’t build it the way you do. You have to believe that.

If you’re trying to find users

A few things I’d suggest based on what’s worked (and hasn’t):

• Be sincere - people can smell a growth hack post a mile away

• Respect the community - read the guidelines, scan the last 20 posts, and follow the unwritten norms. One subreddit I posted in? Everyone used images. So I did too

• Be clear about your motivation - don’t hide the fact that you’re building something

• Ask smart questions - the kind that make sense for the people you're trying to reach and feel natural within that subculture

• Be ready to re-think - even when it stings a little, the feedback is a gift

I spent hours posting, replying, and rewriting drafts that mods rejected - but those two golden comments made it all worth it.

What’s next

We’re launching on Product Hunt next week.

We’ll open the doors in waves - 20 testers, then 50, then 100+.

We want it to feel delightful, not disruptive. Ting is designed to show up in your emails - and that’s very sensitive.

First impressions matter - especially when a meeting = income. That’s why we’re taking it slow.

But we’re getting close. And once we see repeat usage, love in the feedback, and that feeling of “where has this been all my life?” - we’ll know it’s time to cook with gas.

Let’s get people together faster.

-Dan
Chief Ting