If you are not a user ,you are probably not going to build anything great.
Why do replicas of Silicon Valley in other parts of the world fail miserably?
India is probably not a software product developing country. Primary mode of software development in India happens through outsourcing. However, there have been a number of attempts to create a silicon valley in India, mostly by local incubators. Sadly though, mostly of these incubation programs failed to reach their goals. This problem is not India specific though, other countries too face the same problem.
Why is it difficult to create an innovation culture in companies and people? Put another way, why do Silicon Valley companies regularly come up with ground breaking products? Is it because they are smarter than the rest of the world? Or do they have some secret recipe that helps them innovate?
According to psychologytoday, India and China have approximately 8 times brighter students than America. (Kids having IQ level in between 140 to 160. This is based on rough calculation, and India and China has outnumbered America in population many times over.) So the brain is not the answer here. Then what is?
How do people innovate products? Someone uses a product for some time. It is then that he finds that the product lacks a particular feature that can make the product really ‘cool’ or make his life easy as a result of it. That then drives him to find if such a product exists with this feature. If he doesn't find it, he then builds it. This is how Tumblr and other innovative products were developed. The main criteria here is, the user should use the product for a certain amount of time, the threshold time. He should find a sink in the product and should fall in the early stage of the products’ life cycle i.e. be the innovator or an early adopter.
If the user does not fall in the innovators group or the early stage user group of the product, they are not going to innovate. Why? Because then somebody already has developed it. (Many times have I encountered that situation, that feeling that I just fell short of time)
This is the strength of Silicon Valley. People are crazy about technology. They wait eagerly to test new products. They test it, and if they like it, they spread the word, provide feedback etc. But if they find the product lacks something, they innovate upon it.
This is exactly what India and other countries lack in. These kind of feedback systems are complex and natural, copying them won’t work. You cannot replicate these kind of users in one go or in a short period of time. It is a gradual process and takes time.
