Virality-Based Prioritization

Look for user demand by tracking what goes viral—if people share it, there's something valuable at the core

Gaurav Misra
Mastering onboarding | Gaurav Misra

Virality-Based Prioritization

"Our general framework for it is to look for user demand, and actually the easiest way to check for user demand is to just see what has virality. Usually, what has virality and what people want to share and talk about, there's something at the core of it that actually is interesting." - Gaurav Misra

What It Is

A prioritization method that uses social virality as a signal for genuine user interest. Instead of relying solely on user research, surveys, or roadmap planning, you observe what people naturally share and talk about. Viral spread indicates something has genuinely captured attention—even if the specific implementation is a one-time gimmick, the underlying insight may reveal durable value.

This framework addresses the challenge of prioritization in rapidly evolving markets (especially AI), where traditional planning methods can't keep pace with emerging possibilities.

How It Works

The core insight: Virality is a revealed preference indicator. People share things they find genuinely interesting, even when they won't tell you in surveys. If an idea spreads without promotion, there's signal in that spread.

What to look for:

  • Ideas/products/concepts that people voluntarily share
  • Content that spreads beyond its initial audience
  • Things that generate organic conversation
  • Features or capabilities that inspire user-generated content

The nuanced evaluation:

"It may not always be interesting in a way that's like maybe it's a one-time use case. Maybe it's not something that people would do repeatedly. Maybe it's not something you could build like a subscription business off of, but oftentimes there's some things, some core element of it that has resonated with people."

The viral thing itself may not be your product. But the core that made it spread might be.

Pre-build validation:

"We have these tools right now. We don't have to build anything. You can just kind of talk about it and people will share it, share the idea. And you can measure how well the product might be received even before you built anything."

How to Apply It

  1. Monitor broadly - "We spend a lot of time on social media. Obviously, our app is often used for social media, so a lot of our employees will spend a lot of time on social media"

  2. Track what spreads - Look for content, ideas, or product concepts that generate organic sharing

  3. Extract the core insight - Ask: "What's the fundamental element that made this spread?" That insight might be more durable than the specific implementation

  4. Test before building - Share ideas publicly to measure reaction before committing development resources

  5. Mold viral insights into your business - "If you can identify that core and then mold it into fitting into your business, it's actually a great way to identify what actually works"

  6. Validate with real delivery - "Obviously, you have to deliver on the promises. If you don't deliver, people will come in, they'll play around a bunch and then just leave."

When to Use It

This framework works particularly well for:

  • Consumer products with social components
  • Markets with rapid technological change (especially AI)
  • Products where user excitement is a leading indicator
  • Teams with natural social media presence

It's less applicable when:

  • Your users don't have social presence
  • B2B enterprise where sharing isn't typical
  • The product has no visible/shareable component
  • Virality metrics are gamed or fake

Source

  • Guest: Gaurav Misra
  • Episode: "Mastering onboarding | Gaurav Misra"
  • Key Discussion: (00:11:44 - 00:13:30) - Explanation of using virality as a prioritization signal
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

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