Tell me why I shouldn’t build this MVP
TLDR: I want to build the Medium for bullet point blogging (see v.0 design at https://imgur.com/a/lqvjXqa)
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Hi IH
I have a problem/solution/product that I want to validate and need your help.
I can easily build the MVP over a 48h sprint, this weekend, but I want to validate things before committing and pissing off my SO for coding all weekend.
Please let me know in the comments why I shouldn't build this MVP.
Here’s the context.
- I’m a wanna-be blogger. I’m too lazy to write a complete blog post.
In fact, I never wrote an entire blog post in my life, despite having tried 50+ times. But there's a trend, I always give up after writing the first outline, in bullet points.
I found that writing in bullet points is easy for me, but the rest of the process is so hard.
- I never really read blog posts completely. I always skim articles quickly and honestly, most of the time, I only read subtitles. ¯\(ツ)/¯
The problem: I’m lazy af but still want to share my thoughts and learn from others.
The solution: A platform where you can read and create “bullet points blog posts”.
What's a bullet point blog post. A title explaining an idea and some bullet points. That's it.
The 48-hour MVP
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A 2-page iOS app where you can read bullet points blog posts (see v.0 design at https://imgur.com/a/lqvjXqa)
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Creators could upload their bullet point articles by sending an email to us
The MVP would launch with 100 bullet point posts with content that already exists that I would summarize in bullet point format. I'd start with popular startup resources from YC, Andrew Chen, PG, etc.
I don't really know how I'd monetize this, but I guess the first step is to validate if this MVP be valuable for some amount of people.
Let me know why I shouldn't build this and help me save my weekend and relationship :)
What stops people from writing bullet-point blog posts on Medium?
I think you're trying to fix a human problem (you don't finish your blog posts) with technology.
Instead what you should do next weekend is to spend the 48 hours to actually write (edit: and finish) your first blog post.
Alternatively you could do a bullet point list blog post and have someone from fiverr write it out for you.
I think you should build it, and if fails, learn from it.
An alternative suggestion: you create a post with bullet-points. A professional copywriter creates the complete post using your bullet-points. I would use a service like that! Not because of the lazyness, but because create a bullet-point list of thoughts is easy, but create a good peace of copy is really hard.
What type of pricing model would make you regularly use this service?
SaaS / unlimited?
Pay-as-you-go (per words)
Pay-as-you-go (per bullet points)
This is what I was thinking
Is this not Twitter?
You shouldn't be building this startup because user generated content based sites are very difficult to monetize even at a very good traction. Medium is a loss making company and so is Quora.
Most of the internet forums are also not doing so good barring few.
It will take at least a million page views to reach to a decent earnings level. Do you really still want to go for it?
Some thoughts...
How many articles have you ever read that were just bullet points? I can't really recall any in recent memory, or ever, that I've read. Which means... people aren't presently writing them. Writing is such a popular activity that I feel like if people were writing them or wanted to write them there would already be technology for this.
As someone else mentioned... nothing stops existing writers from writing bullet point articles on Medium or their WordPress. People just don't do it.
I'm not convinced there is a legit use case here.
Given that you didn't write your own post in the same "bullet point manner" - id say "no one would use it" :)
how's this going now?
I think people that are saying you should just write a full blog post are missing the point. Clearly you are just illustrating the problem many people have that comes from turning structured ideas into 'content' - that's a legitimate issue. I would gladly read bullet point articles, especially given that half the articles online are needless filler, but the content would have to be great. At the moment Medium is full of crappy writing fluffed up with endless prose and readers who lack critical reading capabilities are gladly 'clapping' along.
Build it. Though I agree with others that and iOS app seems like the wrong choice for an MVP.
You shouldn't do it because it's pissing off your SO. If you do an ambitious platform and get any kind of traction it's going to be months or years on end as opposed to just one weekend.
That's the best reason I can think of.
i like the idea, i don't have time to read all the f*** endless posts of people, so that your platform can allow to read shots of information quickly. Problem: monetization, as Miliam M says, user generated content based sites are very difficult to monetize.
Are you talking about something like Blinkist for blogs? Sounds nice. If you link the full post so I could go to the article if I found it nice. I would use it.
It is a huge work creating the short version though.
Also if it is a weekend you should do it. I am sure you SO won't be so mad if you explain it.
Hope this helps, since you've asked for it.
Don't waste your time on something that will probably fail and one will use. Go hangout with your significant other and have a wonderful weekend :)
I mean >:(
I like the idea of summarising existing blog posts in bullet point format.
Don’t do this manually though - use machine learning. My side project Scholarcy does something similar - turns research papers and books into bullet point revision flash cards.
I like the idea.
I'm a writer, but, frankly, there's too much prose and not enough structured work out there, not enough that's scannable. I'm intrtedtef in what happens when you force people to structure their writing (though there is some work to do to ensure its not listy lists).
There is no reason people can't write bulleted stories in their blog platform/Medium, of course. But your service would be opinionated.
That said, I don't like the idea it's an iOS app (versus public web), don't like the email upload idea (versus CMS/app) and have big suspicions over revenue (seems like a low-value problem to solve, or even having to define the problem first).
An app-centric idea, non-public writing, may be a list-making app for private use and premium download fee.
Being a non-coder, I wish I had the luxury of saying "I could easily wlbuild this if I chose to".
"Want to share my thoughts" and "bullet points" is completely diametrical to me. This means I'm having problems to see the problem you're solving. OTOH blog posts with titles like "The 27 reasons you should learn Swahili" are always very popular.
Can i help you with a quick minimal redesign for this? :))
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