Chapter 1 of 8 · 4 practices · 3 min · 3-question quiz
Validate demand before you build
Find out whether a real group of people has the problem badly enough to pay for a solution, before you write much code.
Start: Ask people about what they already did, not what they would do4 practices in this chapter
- 1Ask people about what they already did, not what they would doIn YC's Startup School lecture on talking to users, Eric Migicovsky warns against hypothetical questions such as "If we built this feature, would you be interested in using it or paying for it?"…
- 2Treat compliments as noise and commitments as signalThe same lecture warns against treating compliments as data: "this is really useful" is not specific and costs the speaker nothing. Steer back to concrete details.
- 3Pick a narrow first customer you can reach directly"Small businesses" is not a customer. "Independent physiotherapy clinics with two to five staff who book by phone" is. A narrow first customer lets you find people to talk to, learn their language…
- 4Look for money already being spent on the problemCompetitors are often good news. They show that people pay to solve the problem. What you need is a reason a specific group would choose you: a narrower fit, a missing feature, a simpler workflow, a…
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