Imagine if the Odeo guys had done this with their new Twitter idea.
Yeah, some stranger might have thought for a few minutes and then asked "But how are they going to make money from it?"
I'll bet you $100 that they end up doing just fine.
The $20 Starbucks Test
31–40 of 68 posts
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#322 points:
1. Moral issues aside, the key is to get the idea out of your head and have other people go at it. There is a class of people that can't spend enough time focused on one project because all these great new ideas keep coming and coming ("uninformed optimism"). Getting external feedback might help regulate this process a bit.
2. Break out of your echo chamber and talk to complete strangers. I believe the best and most innovative ideas come from being exposed to all sorts of industries/occupations. Talking to a random person in a coffee shop could be your way to add serendipity to your meme pool. (Starbucks in some parts of the country might have some homogeneity in the customer population when it comes to designers/developers/etc, making it not the greatest choice, but you get the idea).
In a word: "serendipity"
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#33I'm really disappointed with the frequency of posts advocating lying/deception appearing on HN. Everytime someone lies or takes advantage of someone, it hurts those who may really have a problem or issue. If you want honest feedback then by all means ask people and they'll be likely to help. If for some reason they don't, maybe you'll have to compensate them more. They may give you a discount because you said it was…
How is this taking advantage of someone?
It's a false emotional appeal. Would you answer a five minute survey for a cup of coffee? I wouldn't. But I'd spend 5 minutes to help someone.
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#34Better idea: pay people on Mechanical Turk 10¢ each to bash your idea. You'll get 200 people's feedback instead of 5 from the Starbucks. If even only 1 out of every 30 takes the job seriously, you'll get a better bang for your buck.
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#35Better idea: pay people on Mechanical Turk 10¢ each to bash your idea. You'll get 200 people's feedback instead of 5 from the Starbucks. If even only 1 out of every 30 takes the job seriously, you'll get a better bang for your buck.
Interesting -- have you done this successfully?
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#36I'm not sure being dishonest with people is the way to get an honest response.
Wouldn't it be better if you asked people directly for their opinions about several ideas and not disclose which one it is that you care about? To get honest responses, you might ask about several obviously bad ideas to loosen them up and get them thinking critically.
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#37I think I'd be uncomfortable with this not because of approaching random strangers but rather approaching them with false pretenses. You're essentially fooling people into listening to your ill-formed business plan by lying to their face about non-existant siblings in non-existant danger. Whatever happened to being honest with people? "Hi. Can I buy you a cup of coffee in exchange for some feedback? Five minutes is a…
I agree with your qualms, but isn't the easy answer to have your brother or sister do the testing? :) Or just a friend. The fear that you won't get an honest answer if people think they are criticizing you seems valid, but you don't need much distance before people can be honest.
My main worry is that you what you should be looking for is not popular validation of your idea by people who've never considered the details, rather you should be searching for hurdles that you've never even considered. The danger is that you conclude that the business idea is good when in reality it's just 'cool'.
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#38Better idea: pay people on Mechanical Turk 10¢ each to bash your idea. You'll get 200 people's feedback instead of 5 from the Starbucks. If even only 1 out of every 30 takes the job seriously, you'll get a better bang for your buck.
This is an excellent idea! There couldn't be a more random assortment of internet users and if the rest of the internet is any indication they'll be more than happy to be describe using a website. The way they phrase their descriptions will tell you a lot about what they find significant, annoying, or simply what they don't even mention, e.g. not clicking on a link to a page that you spent 30hrs on. Call it a learning experience. :)
I think a lot of people are, like us, commonly frustrated by UX decisions and would love to have some input on the subject, even if it's for a nobody. The number of $20-iTunes-card focus group ads on Craigslist seems to support this.
Part and parcel to this (and MT) is that anybody can be successful On The Internet, so random strangers will give you the benefit of the doubt that you could indeed be the next Zappos guy (don't say you're the next Zappos guy), optimistically speaking.
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#39There's 2 things wrong with this idea: First is that I really can't see this approach being much more successful than just being honest and saying "can you spare 5 minutes? I'll buy your coffee for the trouble." And more importantly, the overwhelming majority of consumers can't give an unbiased opinion on a business idea. Especially when you frame the question with your brother being destitute if the idea fails. 99.99% of the time, people will tell you not to do it simply because the consequences of failure are so high. Just be honest. People like free stuff. Just buy them the coffee and they'll be more than happy to listen to your idea.
Re: The $20 Starbucks Test
#40Most people are no good at business - and you're not filtering out successful people to give you advice on a business idea. There are meetup.com groups for entrepreneurs which are usually just people with full time jobs fantasizing about not working for the man... if you just want to talk to random people I would say go there instead of interrupting someone when they are getting coffee in the morning ;)