Starting too big

I started building products in my teens (I’m 30 now).
And whatever I built, it was big.

• A directory of vacation properties around the world
• A WebCT for K-12 institutions
• A political social-network

It’s taken 12+ years of building products to realize that I was consistently starting too-big.

It’s not that I was dreaming too-big.
I don’t think a person can dream too-big.
But my first step was consistently too-big.

—

In the product-development world, we’re quick to point at the AirBnb’s, Facebook’s and Google’s as shining-examples. But all three — and most other valuable products — start small and narrow.

And if they’re truly impactful, we delude ourselves into believing that those beginnings weren’t as humble as they were.

But it was their humility that allowed them to test their value, and adapt when needed.

Only by focusing narrowly could they determine whether they were delivering the value they aimed to, and iterating when that wasn’t the case.

So as with much advice that a person gives out, I’m going to speak to myself:
Start small. Build products that attempt to address as narrowly-as-possible a problem you’ve identified (and ideally, run into yourself). Because by doing so, you can most-accurately test your hypothesis.

And adapt when your hypothesis invariably fails ;)