Watch what people actually do: how Instagram, Banana Ball and stand-up sets evolved
October 12, 2026 · 14 min read
Kevin Systrom turned a failed check-in app called Burbn into Instagram by following what users loved, Jesse Cole invented Banana Ball by watching fans, and Sam Morril and Joe Rogan talk about how the audience shapes a set, with the crowd as editor. In an app, a ballpark and a comedy club, the product improved when its makers let the audience's behavior decide what stayed.
The rules, numbers and steps worth keeping in front of you.
- Systrom: write down the three things users uniquely love about your product; at Burbn, photos topped the list.
- Systrom: ask people, but trust usage data, because people rarely give honest feedback.
- Systrom: read several metrics together, and judge product-market fit by cohort retention trends, not total users.
- Systrom: ask why people hire your product, and drop what does not serve that job.
- Systrom's warning: companies fail when they stubbornly ignore data or wildly chase ideas without settling.
- Systrom's warning: a single engagement score produces unintended consequences at the scale of a billion people.
- Cole: find out when people leave; photos of his stands every 30 minutes showed half the fans gone by 10 o'clock.
- Cole: list the boring parts of what you make, then do the opposite of normal.
- Cole: check whether you are changing the condiments or the hot dog, the core product.
- Start small: Systrom mentions about 100 people; Cole tested at a school, with a thousand fans, then in one city.
- Cole's warning: never take an opportunity for the wrong reasons; he will not raise prices or water down the show.
- Morril: work a set out on the road in many cities, and cut what only your ego wants to keep.
- Rest on purpose: Morril says too much road work burns you out, and Systrom calls rest a tool for performing better long term.
This is the short form. The full insight has every expert's reasoning, their own words and the sources.