Are you building the wrong thing?

The questions we should ask before we create a product

A small-town rave

In high school my first business venture was an all-night rave.

My friend Adrian and I did it together. We came up with a unique way to promote the event: We toured local high schools. For two months we set up our DJ equipment in the student lounge, and would play electronica all lunch-hour. During these sets, we pre-sold tickets.

In retrospect, this was a great way anticipate demand: Everywhere we went, kids were excited about the idea of a “rave” in our small town. Even better, many plunked down the $7 they’d need for an advanced ticket. By the time the event rolled around, we had a critical mass of people already committed. We quickly sold out at the door, and had to turn everyone else away.

A small town hip hop party?

The next year Adrian and I had moved on from raves. We had shifted into the hip hop culture, specifically with graffiti, freestyling, mixing breakbeats, and b-boying.

We decided that we would create a new event, but instead of a rave, we would hold a hip hop block party like the one featured in Beat Street.

The recipe would be the same: We’d promote the event in high schools, pre-sell tickets, and sell the remaining tickets at the door.

But this time was different. The response at the high schools was muted. We didn’t sell many advanced tickets. Kids didn’t seem to get the idea of an old-school hip hop party.

Undeterred, we pressed on. We thought for sure that our passion, and following “the recipe,” would result in sales at the door.

The night of the event came. I think only 50 people attended. We lost money.

What happened?

I recently interviewed Hiten Shah for my podcast, Product People. I asked him: How do you know if you’re working on the right product idea?

Throughout our chat, Hiten kept repeating: Are people excited that you’re solving this problem?

Often, we create things selfishly; we build products for ourselves, and then get sad when we release them and no one cares.

Our rave was an example of solving the right problem: Kids wanted to experience these mysterious all-night parties, but couldn’t travel to the big city to experience them. We brought the rave experience to them, which allowed them to cross it off their adolescent bucket list. It was easy to sell tickets because they were excited about us solving their problem.

Our hip hop event was an example of solving the wrong problem: Nobody was excited about it (besides us). There was no pent-up demand for what we were offering.

What now?

To find problems that people want solved, you can’t start by guessing.

You start with people.

I think it makes sense to start with a certain niche of which you’re already a part. For my rave, this meant “high school students in Parkland County.” For you, it could be:

• developers who are launching their first product
• marketers who want to learn a bit of HTML
• law students who need to pass an exam

You don’t have to know a bunch of people to get started, but you might need to push yourself outside your comfort zone to find them. Go to conferences and meetups. Join online forums and communities.

Then, you do your detective work.

Listen. Observe. Take notes. Try to identify trends.

Get a hunch.

Based on what you’re hearing, develop a hypothesis: I think that (this group) has (this problem).

Run experiments.

One of our rave experiments was playing music in student lounges, and observing the response.

With software you could try putting up a landing page, based on your hunch, and see what kind of response you get. Or, you could attend a conference in your niche and talk to people directly.

As you’re talking to people, and gathering feedback, ask yourself Hiten’s question: Are people excited that you’re solving this problem?

If the answer is “YES!” then you know you’re probably building the right thing. If the answer is “meh” or “nah,” go back to the people and listen again. Develop a new hunch, and run more experiments.

Keep repeating this process until you get a resounding: “YES!”

Success comes from continuously improving and inventing. If multiple people are saying“Wow! Yes! I need this!” then you should probably do it. If it’s anything less, don’t pursue it. Improve and invent until you get that huge response.
— Derek Sivers, “If it’s not a hit, switch”

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