Staying Focused: How First-Time Founders Can Shape Winning Product Roadmaps with Onport

Have you ever been walking your dog, fully engaged in the moment, when suddenly they spot a squirrel? Their attention shifts, their focus is lost, and they’re off in another direction entirely. Building a marketplace can feel exactly like that moment.

As a first-time, non-technical founder, distractions come from every angle: stakeholders, investors, new ideas, or shiny features that distract your attention from what truly matters—your vision and your North Star Metric. The key to success is learning to resist the “squirrels” and focus on the journey ahead.

As a first-time, non-technical founder, you are the compass guiding your marketplace’s success. Your focus—rooted in evidence, your vision, and a North Star Metric—is the key to ensuring your product development roadmap remains clear and actionable.

Staying true to your mission will set your marketplace apart amid competing stakeholder demands, operational challenges, and countless distractions.

Why Founder Focus Matters

Building a marketplace is a complex process with many moving parts, but without the founder's focus, even the most innovative ideas can lose direction. Founders must:

Act as Visionaries

Your product roadmap should align with the mission you set out to achieve. This means anchoring decisions to your vision rather than being swayed by short-term trends or vocal stakeholders.

For example, companies like Myspace lost their way by prioritizing features to compete with Facebook instead of staying true to their vision of social connection. Similarly, Kodak’s hesitation to embrace digital photography led to its decline, showcasing what happens when a lack of focus hinders innovation.

As Product Lead at my first marketplace, I experienced first-hand our passionate founder being strong-armed into quickly inserting a prominent feature into the top of the roadmap that nobody had even thought of until that day.

Thanks to the large investor, we abided and took the hit on our chins and started scoping out an Uber-like delivery logistics platform in our rent-anything marketplace. This massive detour diverted critical resources and delayed other high-priority roadmap items, ultimately slowing down progress on the core vision.

It’s a stark reminder that staying true to the mission—even in the face of external pressure—is vital.

Rely on Evidence

Data, customer feedback, and real-world testing should be the foundation of every decision. Speculation and assumptions lead to wasted time and effort. Think of this as checking your GPS before every turn on a road trip—without it, you risk ending up miles off course.

Quibi, for instance, launched with massive funding but ignored early feedback about its product’s relevance to user needs, resulting in a swift failure.

Maintain a North Star Metric

Choose one key metric that represents success for your marketplace—whether it’s transaction volume, active users, or repeat purchases—and let it guide your priorities.

Imagine planning a cross-country trip: if your North Star Metric is mileage, you won’t take a scenic detour that adds unnecessary miles. Companies like eBay thrived by focusing on user trust and transaction growth, keeping their metric at the heart of every decision.

With these principles in mind, the founder's focus drives marketplace growth, ensuring every choice propels you closer to your vision.

Lessons Learned From the Best

When embarking on a journey to build a marketplace, it helps to draw inspiration from those who have travelled the road before. From navigating unexpected detours to prioritizing stops that matter most, understanding these lessons can keep your journey efficient and aligned with your destination.

Let’s take a closer look at Airbnb’s evolution and extract lessons that can guide first-time, non-technical founders in creating a clear and actionable product roadmap. Airbnb’s journey is especially relevant because it shows how founders with a clear vision can shape their product’s success even when navigating complex challenges.

Using the analogy of a road trip, we’ll explore how founder focus and strategic tools like Onport can help you stay on course. For example, just as drivers adjust their routes based on traffic or roadblocks, Airbnb’s founders navigated challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic by refocusing on their core mission.

Lesson 1: Set Your Destination and Plan Your Route

When planning a road trip, you don’t drive aimlessly. You pick a destination and map out the route, including stops that keep you on track. Similarly, your marketplace needs a clear vision and roadmap to succeed.

When Airbnb started, the founders had a destination in mind: to create a platform where people could share their homes with travellers. Over time, they added stops (features) like Experiences and luxury rentals that complemented their destination without straying from their original vision.

As the book Airbnb Before, During, and After COVID-19 notes: “Airbnb’s founders stayed focused on their mission, ensuring every pivot and expansion aligned with their core values.” (Dolnicar, 2021)

Your Takeaway:

• Define your marketplace’s vision—your destination.
• Prioritize essential features that serve your customers and align with your mission.
• Use Onport to streamline operational tasks, freeing up time to focus on your roadmap.

Lesson 2: Be Ready for Detours and Roadblocks

No road trip is without unexpected detours—construction, weather, or wrong turns. COVID-19 was the ultimate roadblock for Airbnb, forcing the company to rethink its approach.

Instead of abandoning the trip, they doubled down on their core values, pivoting back to community-driven initiatives and launching Airbnb.org to support global causes.

“The founders’ ability to adapt without losing focus redefined their path and strengthened their position.” (Dolnicar, 2021)

Your Takeaway:

Stay flexible. Adjust your roadmap to external challenges while keeping your end goal in sight. Use Onport to adapt quickly. Its seamless integrations and automation let you pivot operations without disrupting your customer experience.

Lesson 3: Delegate Tasks and Keep Your Eyes on the Road

Imagine trying to navigate, refuel, and drive simultaneously—it’s a recipe for disaster. A great road trip requires a co-pilot or tools like GPS to handle the details so you can focus on the journey ahead.

For first-time founders, Onport is that co-pilot, managing the operational complexity of your marketplace so you can focus on strategy.

Just as Airbnb leaned on tools, systems, and partnerships to scale its platform, you can delegate repetitive tasks like vendor integrations, order management, and inventory tracking to Onport.

Your Takeaway:

• Let Onport handle the “backseat driving,” ensuring you’re not distracted by operational details.
• Focus on building customer relationships and refining your vision—your core job as the driver.

Lesson 4: Refuel and Learn from Every Stop

Every stop on your road trip offers a chance to reflect, refuel, and adjust. Similarly, your marketplace roadmap isn’t a straight line—it’s a series of iterations based on what you learn at each stage.

As the book highlights:

“Airbnb’s roadmap was a result of years of trial and error, each iteration refining their value creation logic.” (Dolnicar, 2021)

With Onport, you can:

• Gather insights from your marketplace operations to make data-driven decisions.
• Experiment with new integrations and features without getting bogged down in technical complexity.
• Iterate quickly, ensuring each adjustment brings you closer to your destination.

Lesson 5: Celebrate the Journey, Not Just the Destination

The most memorable road trips aren’t just about arriving but about the experiences. Similarly, building your marketplace is about the relationships you build with customers, the challenges you overcome, and the impact you create.

Airbnb’s journey is a testament to this:

“By staying focused on their mission, the founders not only created a successful business but also redefined community-driven travel.” (Dolnicar, 2021)

Your Takeaway:

• Celebrate every milestone, no matter how small.
• Use tools like Onport to ensure your marketplace operates smoothly so you can enjoy the journey of building something meaningful.

Conclusion: Execute Your Vision With Focus and Clarity

The journey of building a marketplace is full of opportunities and challenges. With founder focus at the helm, rooted in a North Star Metric and a clear vision, you can avoid distractions and keep your product roadmap aligned with long-term success.

Leverage tools like Onport to handle the complexities of operations so you can focus on what truly matters: delivering value to your customers and making your vision a reality.

Ready to hit the road? Let Onport be your trusted co-pilot.