This is a great authentic diary of a certain type of smart startup founder’s experience. I’m sure there have been dozens of other founders who have similar stories and never wrote them up like this.
But I really question whether the lean startup applies to this particular scenario. I know you want to avoid wasting time building things that people don’t actually want. That’s like the biggest startup sin there is. I know. But like, what am I supposed to do?
Yep, that’s the internal monologue of most founders. The siren song is “Surely I can’t put this in front of users this week”. You have to be Odysseus ignoring the sirens.
My hypothesis is that once my app gets to the point where it’s in the ballpark of Flopzilla or better, that people will want to use it. It takes time to get to that point. There isn’t really a quick two week MVP I could build to test that hypothesis. I’m already trying to avoid building non-essential features, and focus on getting to that point as quickly as possible. So what am I supposed to do?
The goal is to validate that specific people exist who have a need for what you’re building. But the “specific people” part of that sentence is more important than the “what you’re building” part. Identify them now and talk to them, then ask yourself what is the minimal thing you can do to get them engaged with your product/service.
When you scope a product for only one specific workflow of one specific person, it can be much leaner than what you otherwise would have built as an MVP.
Re needing to be better than Flopzilla: If a specific target user is currently using Flopzilla, how about a workflow where they keep Flopzilla open but also your product at the same time, and they pull up your product in a few narrow situations where it’s differentiated from Flopzilla? It’ll be a janky experience, and that’s fine. It should be possible to get a few specific users using something janky like that as your initial validation.
This is a great authentic diary of a certain type of smart startup founder’s experience. I’m sure there have been dozens of other founders who have similar stories and never wrote them up like this.
Thank you! Yeah, I tried to be as honest as possible telling the story. I think it makes it easier to learn lessons, more fun to read, and for some reason, easier to write.
The goal is to validate that specific people exist who have a need for what you’re building. But the “specific people” part of that sentence is more important than the “what you’re building” part.
That’s a great point. In my mind at the time, the “specific people” part was already validated due to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people use Flopzilla and similar apps, or so I thought. But moving forward, I totally agree that it’s something that I should have actually validated.
(FWIW I have a third post coming out soon where I reflect on the lessons I’ve learned. If you don’t mind, I’d love to DM you when it’s out, because I’d love to hear more of your thoughts.)
In my mind at the time, the “specific people” part was already validated due to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people use Flopzilla and similar apps, or so I thought.
“Person who uses Flopzilla” isn’t maximally specific, compared to knowing their name and talking to them :)
This is a great authentic diary of a certain type of smart startup founder’s experience. I’m sure there have been dozens of other founders who have similar stories and never wrote them up like this.
Yep, that’s the internal monologue of most founders. The siren song is “Surely I can’t put this in front of users this week”. You have to be Odysseus ignoring the sirens.
The goal is to validate that specific people exist who have a need for what you’re building. But the “specific people” part of that sentence is more important than the “what you’re building” part. Identify them now and talk to them, then ask yourself what is the minimal thing you can do to get them engaged with your product/service.
When you scope a product for only one specific workflow of one specific person, it can be much leaner than what you otherwise would have built as an MVP.
Re needing to be better than Flopzilla: If a specific target user is currently using Flopzilla, how about a workflow where they keep Flopzilla open but also your product at the same time, and they pull up your product in a few narrow situations where it’s differentiated from Flopzilla? It’ll be a janky experience, and that’s fine. It should be possible to get a few specific users using something janky like that as your initial validation.
Thank you! Yeah, I tried to be as honest as possible telling the story. I think it makes it easier to learn lessons, more fun to read, and for some reason, easier to write.
That’s a great point. In my mind at the time, the “specific people” part was already validated due to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people use Flopzilla and similar apps, or so I thought. But moving forward, I totally agree that it’s something that I should have actually validated.
(FWIW I have a third post coming out soon where I reflect on the lessons I’ve learned. If you don’t mind, I’d love to DM you when it’s out, because I’d love to hear more of your thoughts.)
Sure feel free to DM.
“Person who uses Flopzilla” isn’t maximally specific, compared to knowing their name and talking to them :)