Making something people want - the GoCardless story
tomblomfield.com
tomblomfield.com
I've become pretty ruthless at remembering that an idea is nothing more than a hypothesis. I'm completely sold to the fact that during the first couple of months you assume nothing and test everything.
I now find that the silent danger comes when I feel a whiff of interest from the market and start to lull myself into thinking that I've validated my idea. Without even realising it I start feeling free to indulge a little more deeply in the "things I find interesting" (features / scaling / design).
The truth of course is that the process of market-fitting isn't complete until a product is selling repeatedly. Even then it's only selling to a segment of a market and a fraction of the channels you'll ultimately use.
The ruthless focus on "what matters" and not "what's interesting" is a large part of what I think separates the entrepreneur from the hobbyist.
As you suggest, you probably never reach that point. "Making something people want" is a (never-ending) process, not a goal.
Reminds me very much of my previous startup, that recently shutdown.
I'm now working on a new company, and I have vowed to not write code until I feel I've hit a burning problem.
I've now talked with nearly 30 parents(which are my target audience) - and see the magic of that process.
After speaking with so many potential customers, I have a much stronger idea of the segmentation of the market, which apps and websites my customers use(this will be the media I'll buy when I launch), but most importantly, I'm starting to recognize patterns of problems that repeat.
I'm not there yet, but I feel I'm getting closer, and only once I do - I'll try to have an MVP - preferrably also without writing code - but doing offline things that will emulate my online solution.
Last thing, a few days ago Dave Mcclure had a lecture in Israel where he said one of the most important lessons I've learned lately: When you focus on a specific customer, pivoting is much easier because each month that passes you usually know more and more about your customer and find out more about their problems.
Pivoting around technology(what I did in my last startup), is possible, but requires much more capital and time, exactly the things startups don't have.
My two cents.
"You should spend most of your time focussing on making something people want. This is a process, not a goal."
If anyone's interested in hearing any further insights, Tom spoke at an event I co-organise in London recently and had a really engaging talk: http://youtu.be/pB1cCd1j48E
(Perhaps it should have been the other way round...!)
Love the line "Most startups aren’t competing with other startups; they’re competing with no one giving a shit."
It's entirely possible that everyone in your target audience is familiar with and expects your alternate usage of the term, nonetheless it would be a huge help to anyone else who stumbles across it if you were to define it (or avoid TLA-startup-speak entirely).
Startup myopia, I'm afraid.
There's no such resource available to learn what people are actually looking. Atleast not an easy way.
Or start with a hypothesis based on your past personal or professional experience.
The point is that you should try to validate consumer demand as quickly as possible without wasting too much time or money. It's the "Lean Startup" approach:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lean-Startup-Innovation-Successf...
For example, I recently tried to rent a house in London. The process was painful and time-consuming and I think I could improve it by writing a great software package. But instead of spending 2 years and several million dollars building that software package to a "vision", I would put up a simple landing page, market it to potential customers and perform the main parts of the service manually to gauge consumer interest.
... so true!