This isn't an either / or decision for a company. It makes sense to create a net if you're early in the lifecycle of a company or product—before it's reached product/market fit. Once a startup has reached product/market fit, however, creating a funnel and A/B testing the hell out of it is probably a good idea.
To use an example from your post, now that you know what people are looking for (and how they're behaving) on your paystub page, you can begin to tweak the design, layout, and flow of that page to optimize whatever it is you want to optimize.
With the above in mind, "make a net, not a funnel" is another way of saying "don't optimize prematurely".
To use an example from your post, now that you know what people are looking for (and how they're behaving) on your paystub page, you can begin to tweak the design, layout, and flow of that page to optimize whatever it is you want to optimize.
With the above in mind, "make a net, not a funnel" is another way of saying "don't optimize prematurely".