Start with the customer and work backwards.
In other words,
Identify a customer problem, validate it - THEN build a solution.
If you don’t, here’s what might happen:
I was speaking to a founder of a now-defunct tech startup.
He and his partners came up with what THEY thought was a cool consumer mobile app idea.
They raised a significant amount of money to bring it to market.
They then struggled for several years to achieve product-market fit.
They learned the hard way that you can’t sell a solution to a customer who isn’t convinced they have a problem.
After reliving the peaks and valleys of his journey,
He finally concluded that they built the product because they COULD.
Not because they had identified a new customer problem that had not been addressed.
Or an existing problem to which they felt they could provide a better solution.
They fell in love with THEIR idea and the challenge of making it work.
They made the app work. But in the end - it didn’t work.
So, just because you CAN build something,
Doesn’t necessarily mean that you SHOULD.
At least not until you’ve verified that a problem does in fact exist, and that customers demand a solution.
Start with the customer, and work back from there. 🎯
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Ready for customer research but don't know where to start? Reach out and I'll help you get moving in the right direction.
