📍How to avoid wasting countless hours building a product no one wants to use?💡

Eraldo Forgoli
9 replies
This is the most common mistake Engineers turning entrepreneurs make. They start building the product without validating the idea first. A couple of months go by, and they build an MVP, but the harsh reality humbles them down: No one is willing to use it, as the solution does not solve any problem. Or worse, they have built a clone of an existing platform. 📍How to avoid wasting countless hours building a product no one wants to use? 📚 Read The Mom Test. Often times you’ll ask your close friends or coworkers what they think about your idea, and your question will probably be: Hey, I’m building this amazing app that does … what do you think about it? Or: I’m building an app about … Would you use it? The answers are always positive because you are asking the wrong questions. You’ll have a couple of conversations like this, spend months building the app, and then wonder why no one is buying your app, not even the ones that said they liked the idea. General rules of thumb: 1️⃣ Talk about their life instead of your idea, see if the problem exists for them, and don’t push towards hearing what you want to hear. 2️⃣ Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future. 3️⃣ Talk less and listen more. 🔎 Do the research (Become a scientist yourself) Research, and see if there are existing platforms that solve the problem you are trying to solve. Do you still want to give it a shot? Figure out how your platform will stand out, what will differentiate it from the competition? 📈 Measure interest Follow these (mostly) no-cost steps to validate your idea: 1️⃣ Build a landing page, don’t waste time designing it, or even coding it yourself. Instead, use a template or a page builder (Webflow does the trick). Your focus should only be explaining what the startup does, what problem it solves, and the value it adds to its users. 2️⃣ Add a Join Beta or Request Access button/CTA. 3️⃣ Share the landing page on Reddit, Discord, Slack channels, and LinkedIn. If within 2 weeks there is no interest, then you got the answer. 4️⃣ Sharing it out in the wild should give you most of the answers, but if you still insist, you can run ads (with a minimal budget). If you want to give it the last shot, run Google ads, and see if anyone is interested in your idea. #buildinginpublic #day2 #entrepreneurship

Replies

Rex Kumaran
These are very good suggestions. Many thanks. There's also an interesting piece someone shared with me which concludes that making decisions based on rationality and intuition is the best mix. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi... In other words, some people go by their gut, others go by their brain. But combining both as inputs into your methodology (i.e. if you are looking to build a product), you can potentially achieve a higher strategic outcome. So to use your example above, it's not solely relying on market feedback (the brain approach) but also sense checking that with your gut...but do both. I am always reminded of the famous quote by Henry Ford: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." :-)
Eraldo Forgoli
@rex_kumaran For sure, we decided to build onecal.io because we had market feedback and a strong gur feeling 💯
Deivid Colkevicius
+1 to "Talk less and listen more" should be the motto for everyone in all aspects of life. One mouth, two ears for a reason. Great post, thanks for sharing Eraldo
Thank you for sharing this with us :)
Rob Woodgate
Hear hear... back in the day (early naughties), we called what you are describing a fly catcher page. Idea validation is key, and is an area I've tripped over more times than I care to mention!
True words
Sneha Saigal
100% agree with this! It is so important to talk to potential customers.
Tom Garcy
Thanks for sharing!
Mohcine Heddi
Talking less and listening more