3 steps to building a high-demand product — without wasting any code
How to avoid pivots as a pre-revenue startup
A pivot happens — at least in the startup world — when you realize that your plan isn’t working and you need to change direction. Pivoting is a gut-wrenching, heart-stopping, mind-blowing time. You’re scared out of your wits. Losing everything is a very real possibility. It’s not a great place to be. It’s when you realize the market doesn’t actually want your great idea.
The popular Lean Startup movement says you should ship products into the marketplace quickly to test reaction. Based on feedback, iterate and iterate again until you achieve Product-Market Fit.
I am an entrepreneur who’ve built two companies from ground up and tried a new model again and again for the second one which worked out perfectly.
I am going to share a framework that’s a lot easier and much quicker.
Let’s assume you have an idea:
“A Middle-Out Compression Solution Making Data Storage Problems Smaller”
Step 1. Learn
Start by really getting to grips with who would want to use your product (assuming you already know your product and the space in which it fits). The more you learn about your market, the better you get at describing how your product solves their problem.
You can start with market research, but don’t just rely on the peripheral statistical data. You should really dive deep. Your aim is to be able to intelligently answer at least 80% of any question your prospects might throw at you.
Take a small sample set of ideal prospects and start learning everything you can about them.
- What competitor products do they use?
- What do they like and dislike about the product?
- What is their full technology stack?
- What are their key business drivers?
- What publications do they read?
- Who do they do business with?
Use tools like AngelList, LinkedIn, CrunchBase, SimilarTech to assist in your search.
Learn everything you can about the market: main players, their customers, pricing, what customers think.
Step 2. Measure
You don’t need fancy tools or expensive consultants to measure the validity of your idea. You just need a name (to help identify your offering) and a clear description of the problem you solve, or the shift your industry is undergoing.
Let’s say your company is “Pied Piper beta”. Craft the essence of your product in three simple lines and prepare different variations. You can get creative, but simple, powerful benefit statements always work best.
1. Pied Piper — We Make Big Data Storage Problems Smaller
2. Pied Piper — Your files 10X smaller without data loss
3. Pied Piper — Carry your data center in your pocket
Now craft a message to a small subset of your potential customers. Don’t worry about getting the messaging perfect. All you need is one person to say, “Yes, this sounds cool.”
“Hey Gavin,
I see that you are an expert and VP in data storage. I see you use Hooli cloud. Our engineering teams use it too. Are you also on their tier 3 that costs $40K/month?
We built a solution, Pied Piper beta, for ourselves that compresses data 10X and it’s been working magically. Would love to get your feedback on it. If it works for you, would a cost of $10K/month — a $30K saving — be reasonable? Thoughts?
Cheers,
Richard
For each email, alternate one of the three messages benefit statements as the email heading.
Use a simple CRM service that has tracking and other basic marketing features to send 300 emails using the template above. Mailshake or Hubspot are good options. Use LinkedIn’s Advanced Search to find these ideal prospects, but don’t send the message via LinkedIn. Use a tool like Hunter, AnyMail or Leadfuze to find their business email address.
If you receive at least 30 positive responses (10% conversion) after your first email and a single follow-up, you have confirmation that the pain point is very high. This validates your idea.
If you don’t get any excited replies, check whether you can narrow down your target selection. The more relevant your targets, the better the response. If there’s no response at all, go back to the drawing board to question your idea.
Step 3. Build
Now that you’ve established that people want your product, what’s the next step? Build the world’s best compression algorithm?
No.
Build a simple landing page. Use the benefit statement which achieved the highest email open rate from step 2 as the heading of the page.
You can use SquareSpace, Leadpages or LaunchRock to create a simple landing page that collects email addresses of people interested in your offering. If you need richer functionality, hire a vetted contractor. Even complex requirements should cost no more than $500.
PiedPiper.com— We are in beta right now, please sign up to get early access.
Use an automated service to post regular updates to all your social media accounts. You can use IFTTT, PostPlanner or SocialPilot.
For the initial 30 responses and any subsequent email addresses captured, reach out personally to every individual.
Your aim is to schedule a meeting/phone call to hear how they describe the problem you can solve.
Ask them the questions listed in step 1. Find out the size of the business and revenue. Ask them what features they would like to see in a solution. With 50 or more responses, you’ll have a very clear idea of what the market needs and wants.
Step 4.
There is no Step 4, because that’s all it takes to solidly validate that your great idea will have traction, long before investing in developers. Once you’ve validated your idea, you can connect with pre-vetted contractors using Kriya AI that work on your product sprints.
