Advice for the pre-product days: A founder’s playbook for pivoting with purpose
https://review.firstround.com/advice-for-the-pre-product-market-fit-days-this-founder's-playbook-for-pivoting-with-purpose
There’s so much more to be learned from the messier moments when you’re in the trenches, scaling from zero to one. But as a startup grows and the further away founders get from that early turbulence, the hard-won lessons become fuzzier.
More and more I believe that people get too attached to one idea and treat killing the project as a failure. But it's actually the opposite. Many members of the WBE Space have has their goal to reach ramen profitability and for that one needs to try multiple projects.
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Really enjoyed this conversation with Tara Viswanathan, co-founder of Rupa Health.
If you're like me, you probably run over several business ideas every day. But as we all know on Indie Hackers, ideas are pretty much worthless. Taking action is what creates a business.
The first tip, in particular, is vital: Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. This is widly shared advice, but it is just as frequently as ignored. Many are caught up in the thrill of building before the stop to dig into the problem they're solving. I think that makes sense because many indie hackers are creators at heart.
Viswanathan recommended the book “The Mom Test” which offers tactical skills for user interviews and staying in a problem-focused mindset.
One simple way to get into that mindset is to think about the story you share when you describe your company. Do you talk about what your product does and how? Or do you talk about the problem you see and how you help people/businesses overcome that?
If you practice telling your company's story in a different way, you gradually become more attuned to the people and problems your company serves.
The Mom Test is a great book. Highly reccomend.