Day 25 building AffiSpark

Yesterday I wrote that a lot of product friction is really sequencing friction.

Today I think the sharper version is this: the problem is usually not friction. It is premature friction.

Pricing is friction.

Forms are friction.

Setup is friction.

Feedback prompts are friction.

That does not automatically make them bad.

A lot of friction becomes acceptable once it arrives after enough context, trust, or momentum.

For AffiSpark, the useful changes were not “remove the ask.”

They were “move it later”:

preview before payment

in-browser walkthrough before handoff

feedback at hesitation instead of after silence

Bad friction is often not too much.

It is too soon.

My current rule: before removing friction, ask whether it just needs to arrive later.

Founders: what friction in your product got accepted once it showed up later instead of sooner?