Product/Market Strategies

Not so Good: Build it and they will come. 

Good: Make something people want. 

Better: Make something people need. 

Even better: Make something people need and know that they need. If they don’t already know, someone will have to help them know. That someone might be you and helping them will take sales and marketing, a significant consideration. 

Even better: Make something people need, know they need, and are willing to pay for now. Competing against “we’re not ready, maybe next year” is tougher that competing against any competitor. 

Best: Make something people need, know they need, are willing to pay for now, and has their hair on fire. 

Leapfrogging to “let’s just solve this problem now” is often the best (and most fun) way to deploy. 

[EDIT: This is “not” about “guessing what people need”, worrying about competition, or assuming “if I need it, others must too”. This is about getting up off your butt, talking to people, finding out what they must have, and building it for them. There are people everywhere desperate for solutions to their problems, and I promise you, they’re not finding them. Sure, you may scratch your own itch and hope that someone else needs it, but this is a lottery approach. Most start-ups fail because they built something no one else wanted or was willing to pay for. 

There is absolutely no better way to find out what to build than finding customers first. Please don’t be like me and learn that the hard way. There are great apps everywhere that nobody uses while people suffer because no one is building what they want.]