#8 Reflection: How to Understand Users AND Yourself - Javier Sanchez Mejorada | Afino

Javier is the cofounder of Afino, a startup that helps employees better engage with remote work. I talk to Javier about his experience with understanding users' needs and growing his own self-awareness!  

These are some books Javier recommends to learn about building products:
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- Inspired by Marty Cagan
- Purple Cow by Seth Godin  
To learn more about Afino, visit www.afino.io  

P.S. Some fancy words Javier used:
- QICSI: The Queens Innovation Centre Summer Initiative. An entrepreneurship accelerator that Javier attended at his university.
- 5 Whys: A process where you ask why five times to find the root cause of a problem. More information here: www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/5-whys
- MVP: Minimum viable product. The most basic version of a product that entrepreneurs can create to check their ideas.
- Product Hunt: A platform that compiles new startup products from around the world.  

Timeline
00:00 Introduction
01:20 How did you start?
02:58 Pivots in the Pandemic
04:25 Finding the root cause
10:31 Real problems vs. user ideas
13:45 Hard lessons learned
16:03 Testing prototypes
17:25 Measuring progress
20:55 Reading recommendations
22:35 How to read   
24:02 Life routines