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The most important thing to understand about new products and startups

paulbuchheit.blogspot.com

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Re: The most important thing to understand about new products and startups

#21

Post by vlad »

electric wrote: post #15
edw519 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm a little bit different than many here. I am TOTALLY guided by my customers. I wasn't always this way. I used to think that something would be so cool, so I would build it, and often, the project went nowhere. I was fortunate to have a co-founder at one time who insisted that we sell it first, then develop it. I never completely came around to his way of thinking, but now I understand where he was coming f…

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” -- Henry Ford.

Edw has a great story from personal experience. Why not respectfully ask how Ford's quote fits with this story rather than post a sarcastic reply?

Re: The most important thing to understand about new products and startups

#22

Post by vlad »

I respect the time PB has taken to write this post, but think this advice is aimed at beginners. In my opinion, the most important thing about new startups is to do it in an area with others your age trying to accomplish similar feats, many of whom are slowly succeeding, and where tech savvy investors and employees are. Smart people who can accurately assess your abilities as well as help each other with honest feedback.

I've seen many variations of the same insightful opinions like that one, but something very important that actually requires more than just product or language choice is getting up off your ass and moving to Silicon Valley. For that reason, that should be the most covered topic--at least in my experience.

Re: The most important thing to understand about new products and startups

#23

Post by paul »

electric wrote: post #15
edw519 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm a little bit different than many here. I am TOTALLY guided by my customers. I wasn't always this way. I used to think that something would be so cool, so I would build it, and often, the project went nowhere. I was fortunate to have a co-founder at one time who insisted that we sell it first, then develop it. I never completely came around to his way of thinking, but now I understand where he was coming f…

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” -- Henry Ford.

That's a great quote. It's important to understand that _listening_ to your customers isn't the same as having them design the product (which would be a mistake). In this case, the message that you should get from the customer is that "my horse is too slow".

Re: The most important thing to understand about new products and startups

#24

Post by brlittle »

electric wrote: post #15
edw519 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm a little bit different than many here. I am TOTALLY guided by my customers. I wasn't always this way. I used to think that something would be so cool, so I would build it, and often, the project went nowhere. I was fortunate to have a co-founder at one time who insisted that we sell it first, then develop it. I never completely came around to his way of thinking, but now I understand where he was coming f…

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” -- Henry Ford.

That's probably a valid consideration, but whether you should take it into serious account depends upon your aims: Are you trying to shift the paradigm, and introduce something entirely new? Or are you simply trying to produce the best refinement of an existing process or technology.

Not every change is revolutionary, nor does it need to be. Constantly reinvent things, and you'll wear your market out. But customer-sensitive refinements are frequently welcomed by consumers (depending on what they cost), or at least accepted without complaint.

You can't simply blow your audience off, no matter how visionary Henry Ford might have been. Development of anything...a process, a product, an image, a brand, whatever...is a never-ending set of nested feedback loops from the target audience, or else it's eventually a failure.

Re: The most important thing to understand about new products and startups

#26

Post by jdueck »

edw519 wrote: post #6

"if people don't want it, then you will fail" Maybe the best advice you'll ever get here. So find a customer early. Very early.

My first startup made that mistake. We built the entire product before getting any customers. Since then, I've always started new projects as pseudo-consulting gigs. That way, the product is designed around a real need.

Re: The most important thing to understand about new products and startups

#27

Post by jkush »

vlad wrote: post #22

I respect the time PB has taken to write this post, but think this advice is aimed at beginners. In my opinion, the most important thing about new startups is to do it in an area with others your age trying to accomplish similar feats, many of whom are slowly succeeding, and where tech savvy investors and employees are. Smart people who can accurately assess your abilities as well as help each other with honest feedb…

Like a lot of good advice that seems to be obvious or simple: it's the condensed result of subject mastery.

You're right: it's aimed at beginners. It's also aimed everyone else.

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