Mistaken charge at the wrong crowd

We have all.. Been there..

Got this one great idea stuck at the back of your mind.. The itch to make it happen.. Only, not having the right people to build it with or the skill set to make it happen yourself..

Then one fine evening as you catch up with friends and your idea naturally comes into the conversation (or you force it in), suddenly everyone thinks this is a no brainer and that you should definitely pursue it. This conversation introduces you to vibe coding and how you really are your own roadblock (read enemy for dramatic effect) if you don’t build it.

Now you’re intrigued, you go home spend a few hours on your shiny MacBook Pro that you were remorseful of buying since you hadn’t really used it for its potential (impulse purchases carry this guilt often) but now was the time.. In your very King-ly voice: “I will claim dominion! I will reclaim my money’s worth!”.. “Bwhahahahaha” – Ok may be not the manic laugh but the rest does go through your mind.

A few hours later you’ve researched the tools and your idea looks like it’s in your grasp and pretty doable. Horns burning, eyes shining, charging on. You are honed in, very much locked on!

Cut to a few months later..

You’ve drunk more coffee in the last few months than you have in your life time, you’ve spent countless hours in front of your Mac which now has an ultra wide 4k monitor hooked up to it. Your eye bags sagging from all the screen time but you’re very proud of what you are building. “This will solve so many problems”, “Its an instant hit”, “My friends think this will do wonders, the future generations will thank me”, “I will be the hero nobody knew they needed”..

BUT! Is it? The idea that lived in your head for so long, it practically became the only thing you thought about. You brought it up with your friends, who genuinely thought it’s a fantastic idea and on the surface it probably was, has now manifested in front of you, so close you could lick it if you wanted. Add a hint of tunnel vision in there too.

The realization

You were so excited and caught up in getting it built, you skipped the one thing which you thought wouldn’t matter as much at this stage..

Research! The one thing that would have helped you understand so many different nuances in your customer’s behavior.

Now, validation is important of course but with the right audience, the group of people that will actually appreciate the solution you’re trying to build because they are the ones with that problem.

There’s good news however, most first time builders fall in the same trap. The modern tech stack you’ve built can help you rethink, research and rebuild. Of course there’s a chance you might end up pivoting to something completely different based on your new learning. It’s also quite possible you were right in the first place all along and this exercise might help you analyze shortcomings or validate your original idea. It’s a win win and both cases are strong as can be.

This does not mean don’t start something new at all, there’s also proven cases of new products or solutions coming to the market with little to no research at all and being a success. So how does one figure out what direction to take.. to research or not to research..

What to look for?

Besides the comparisons you’ll do with the closest solutions or competitors out there, get observational. Look for signals, the behaviours no one tells you about.. This is what research is all about.. The loud and clear is mostly surface level, the real juice is patterns, how the users navigate the problem or figure out solutions in the demographic you are targeting.

If you’ve been at it for a decade or more, chances are you can trust your gut instincts and if not – test, test, reset then test again.

Some products end up being a solution to a problem the creator faced in their day to day, the solution ended up resonating with a lot more people which made it a success. OpenClaw and PhotoAI are good examples of this. OpenClaw came out because its author wanted an AI assistant that worked when he wasn’t, he could just message the assistant to get started. Or PhotoAI that came out because the author hated his own profile pictures on LinkedIn.

Solve the problem but understand the customer. They aren’t just numbers or demographics. Sometimes one can reach out for in-depth understanding of problems. This adds value to you and them – They will feel more valued with your product as well.

Let’s begin

So where does one start? As with any thing you are trying to solve, start with the problem. What is the problem and what causes it? What are the contributing factors to it and what are the work-arounds or solutions people are using today? How can I make this better or alleviate the problem altogether?

Almost all of the answers lie around with people who are contextually associated with the problem you are trying to solve. Talk to them, interview them, connect the dots. Associate the wrong people and you have data that’s not usable. Go beyond face to face as well, you’ll see people posting problems online on forums, Reddit, TikTok and what not. Keep in mind you are not the first one with the idea (probably) but you may have an intelligent solution and you’re willing to build it.

You can then start piecing together a solution that will help identify the core problem which in turn will help you explore a different process, the convenience factor.

Change my habits?

A lot of the problems faced by customers can be fixed by a change of habits, which however causes inconvenience, which is why the problem lingers and the solution is ignored. This in itself is a major obstacle and should be taken into account.

The solution you are building has to be, like your friends put it.. no brainer. It has to be obvious unless complexity is a prerequisite. One of the ways to achieve this is providing or referencing context. If you’re showing the user everything all at once, you’re not doing anyone a favour by providing them with all available complexities, which in turn causes inconvenience. More the cognitive load, the tougher it is to navigate.

Tough to navigate? Poof goes the customer!

Great insights can lead to wrong results too. Henry Ford once famously said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Fail faster

What! Why? I mean not literally, but do so too.

I’ve been in the industry long enough to see people still trying to build full scale products from the get go, again and again.

When you do that you take the iteration out of the equation, which slows down your progress given that even small changes demand a bigger investment with respect to time, money and effort.

Yep, I’m dipping slightly in the project management category but what’s true and works should always be elevated and appreciated. Agile works, waterfall not so much.

The way to approach is to build in blocks iteratively. Test every step of the way. This is usually the MVP (Minimum Viable Product), or depending on the categorization of the product, an MLP (Minimum Lovable Product).

When you are at this stage there’s more room to test and strip away things that aren’t needed and build upon what works and is loved by your customers.

Going back to where this whole article started, you could be the guy building a product that revolutionizes an industry, a process, or improve the everyday life of your customer. You have to start somewhere but wherever you start, figure out what you’re trying to solve. Research, execute and test, lock in your MVP. That’s where your journey really begins, test with real users, research them, execute based on newer findings, then start again.

To be honest you might start again without research but with a goal and it may turn out ok.. If it doesn’t, this time you’ll know what you skipped.