Product

1/ The toothbrush test

A helpful heuristic I use to evaluate consumer apps is the toothbrush test. I first learned about it in 2014 in a NY Times article.

"When deciding whether Google should spend millions or even billions of dollars in acquiring a new company, its chief executive, Larry Page, asks whether the acquisition passes the toothbrush test: Is it something you will use once or twice a day, and does it make your life better?

The esoteric criterion shuns traditional measures of valuing a company like earnings, discounted cash flow or even sales. Instead, Mr. Page is looking for usefulness above profitability, and long-term potential over near-term financial gain.

Google’s toothbrush test highlights the increasing autonomy of Silicon Valley’s biggest corporate acquirers — and the marginalized role that investment banks are playing in the latest boom in technology deals."

There are also many great consumer products that don't have daily usage. Think Zillow, OpenTable, Amazon, etc.

I also think an anti-pattern here are apps that try to force daily use but don't have a natural daily usage frequency, and just end up annoying their user base with overly aggressive notifications.