Most brands hope their product will magically spread through word of mouth, that more users will somehow make their offering more valuable, and that network effects will just emerge.
However, real network effects must be designed for the product from the start. They require an intentional architecture that makes each new user add value to existing ones.
This means building features that improve with more community participation, where user insights become part of the solution, and where shared experiences make everyone’s journey easier.
It means creating systems where users can help each other, knowledge accumulates for the benefit of all, and individual actions strengthen collective impact.
The key isn’t to build something and hope for network effects. It’s to design something that would be incomplete without community contribution. That gets demonstrably better as more people engage with it.
Network effects aren’t about more people using our products but about more people making our products more valuable for everyone else.