Innovation, UX, and Best Practices for Builders
SSA Fireside Chat Recap with Nikhil Kumar
This week, we sat down with Nikhil Kumar, Head of New Products at the Solana Foundation, to discuss the history of and current innovations within the Solana ecosystem. From state compression to developer tooling and ecosystem growth, the conversation surfaced insights on what’s next for Solana and best practices for founders and builders alike. Here’s a recap!
Key Takeaways:
Infrastructure is no longer the blocker – Better tooling, docs, and onboarding has lowered barriers to building on Solana. It’s time for creativity!
Get user feedback through observation, quickly – Feedback via real user actions is better than just listening to requests and complaints. Use paper prototypes if you’re pre-product, watch users using your product live, and look at usage metrics for signal.
Ship before you network – Networking at conferences is sometimes useful, but having a product to show there is generally a prerequisite before it’s worth your while.
UX for crypto needs work – More attention to detail about user behaviors and critical pain points are essential for mainstream growth.
Crypto is a tool, not the product – Make sure your crypto features solve real problems for users or enable totally new, fun experiences not possible with other tech. Just being a crypto-enabled product isn’t enough; solve user problems first!
Collaboration drives progress – Grants, hackathons, and partnerships across the ecosystem, not just from the Foundation, are helping drive growth.