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What Rahul Vohra thinks about design

@rahul-vohra · 24 positions · 0 changes of mind

Founder and chief executive of Superhuman, the email client; previously founder of Rapportive, which he sold to LinkedIn; a professional game designer before that.

Rahul Vohra did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

9 dated positions, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Rahul Vohra has said — not written or endorsed by them.

9 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

  1. Our readingEverything a company can build is either solution deepening or market widening, and doing one means not doing the other.

    Their wordsyou can classify anything that you build in a company into one of two categories. Solution deepening and market widening. Now solution deepening means making your product better for its existing users but not making it available to more users. Whereas market widening means making your product available to more users but not making the product itself any better.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 2nd of 24 in this recording

  3. Our readingA company deserves everyone in it, the chief executive included, to spend as much time as possible in their zone of genius — which is an org design problem.

    Their wordsAnd number two, the superhuman opportunity deserves everyone who works at the company to spend as much time as possible in their zone of genius. And so that includes me as well as everybody else. So what I did is I hired a really great president. I went from eight direct reports to two.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 4th of 24 in this recording

  5. Our readingWhat creates real virality is not viral mechanics but word of mouth, and word of mouth is a thing you can only get by building a brand.

    Their wordswhat is it that creates true virality? It's not viral mechanics. It's word of mouth. It is brand that this is how you can kickstart a brand.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 12th of 24 in this recording

  7. Our readingReaching product-market fit requires deliberately not acting on the feedback of many of your early users, at the same time as listening intensely.

    Their wordsAnd I'd say the second thing is to get to products market fit, you have to deliberately not act on the feedback of many of your early users. And this is at the same time as listening to people intensely and building what people want, right?

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 14th of 24 in this recording

    product management

  9. Our readingChanging how you run a survey invalidates every number you collected before it: you are starting a new baseline, not continuing the old one.

    Their wordsThe key thing is, and this applies to any survey methodology, if you're going to change the method of surveying, all of your old numbers are invalidated. So, it's just a new baseline going forwards.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 17th of 24 in this recording

  11. Our readingBusiness software should be built the way games are built, because products made like games are the ones people fall in love with and tell their friends about.

    Their wordsWell, I strongly believe that we should make business software like we make games because when we make products like we make games, people find them fun. They tell their friends. They fall in love with them.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 18th of 24 in this recording

  13. Our readingRewards undermine intrinsic motivation, which is why gamification does not work; where it appears to work, the underlying experience was already designed as a game.

    Their wordsAnd that's the problem with rewards is they just massively undermine intrinsic motivation. And that's why gamification doesn't work. And when gamification does work, it's because the underlying experience was already designed like a game.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 19th of 24 in this recording

    motivation

  15. Our readingThe best games are constructed out of toys, so a feature should be fun to play with before it is ever attached to a goal.

    Their wordsAnd as it turns out the best games are constructed out of toys. Why? Because then they are fun on both levels. the toy and the game itself.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 20th of 24 in this recording

  17. Our readingWhich AI features users will love is genuinely unpredictable, and the ones a founder is most confident about are the ones that get used least.

    Their wordsbasically everything I thought would work out well, people use it less than I thought they did. And everything where I was like, I don't know, but let's build the thing. People love that.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 23rd of 24 in this recording