How do you decide which product idea to build – and which one to kill?
A lot of makers come out with bold claims about their idea: THE NEXT BIG THING.
In most cases, surprisingly, it’s not even the next small thing. People simply don’t notice it.
– There’s an overload of products.
– They’re easier to build than ever.
– And getting people’s attention is harder each time.
Some ideas don’t just feel unoriginal to me, they don’t even feel useful.
Recently, I’ve really liked concepts like @ProblemHunt and @404tomb , where people can validate an idea before building, whether there’s actual demand for it, or whether that idea has already failed in the past.
How do you decide if something is worth building?
And how much time do you usually give an MVP before moving on?
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From my perspective (a guy thats been in the VC industry and working with a lot of great founders):
It has to be a BIG problem - think in BIG pains for people or companies - I would start making a market research before start building
Depends on the money that you are willing to spend and the # of people that have give you feedback - it could be weeks or months
Simple: is the product useful to me? If yes, if I have a use, and there's nothing close enough that fulfill my requirements, then I'll build it because it's worth building. I'll build for everyone to use.
But the problem is not building, it it? The problem is marketing, selling, going live and maintaining. That's where the real complexity lives. And I don't go through those steps because I don't know how, because it's not that thrilling, because I don't have a business partner so lack accountability. And when the product has outlived its utility to me, what happens to it?
My latest one: https://vesta-mcda.com. Super exciting, super useful when you have complex decisions to make, but suffers the same fate as my other products. I didn't even bother registering on PH and it will most certainly get its own nice little tomb.