Advice on pivoting and validating an MVP
Background
I've been a long term lurker, but more just observing the interesting things people are building. I'm not a software developer, so I've learnt a lot through the process itself.
Idea
Recently I've started building an engineering (particularly Civil Engineer), QC and resource sharing platform MVP Jivy.
This idea came about due to some experiences I've had as a CE, where in my earlier days of my career I didn't have the skills or experience (nor in-house support) to develop the tooling. With later in my career, issues with QC, which has been prevalent.
Issues
I've talked to a few other engineers and some responses I've gotten were:
- This already exists (Projectwise 365, MathCAD, other internal libraries firms are using). Bentley, PTC, AutoDesk have created most of the software we need.
- No one wants to share their propriety tooling as they want to keep an edge
- Engineers want to build everything from scratch so they can understand how things work
- Most larger engineering companies already have a library/repo of everything they need
Advice
On reflection, from personal experience, I know that engineers/companies don't like buying new software (due to the costs) and potential redundancy.
- Should I give this idea a chance?
- What should my approach be to validating the idea better? (I have a pretty good network of non-software engineers)
- When do I know that I should pivot into something else? And what should it be towards?
I like how you approached this so far. I’d almost say though that given the negative feedback you’ve received so far, maybe you’ve put too much thought into what the product should be. For example, you’re landing page has a lot of detail about the product and what it does.
You should absolutely give the product a chance. Don’t let the negative feedback stop you. You’re doing the right thing by talking to people. But (big BUT), try to keep an open mind. Let people guide you towards what your product should be.
I don’t think of pivoting my product in big sweeping changes. I try to always be in a constant state of pivoting.
Try asking questions like ‘what’s your biggest pain point as a civil engineer?’ ‘What drives you crazy at work?’ ‘What do your coworkers complain about?’ Make it very generic. The trick is you have to really listen. Don’t just drop what you’re doing for what one person tells you. Keep the interviews up for 6 months or so. Always getting fresh people. Preferably strangers. Listen for signals. 3-4 people telling you the same thing. Then actually change your product. Change the landing page. Steer it towards those signals. Eventually, people complain less. The feedback starts to turn positive.
I’ve been living in the market research phase for a long time. I might not be the best person for advice. I like to just think of the research phase as a fun hobby. It takes time to get good feedback and then implement it. Mostly just because of the mechanics of finding people and scheduling time. So I keep my mentality focused on the fact that I’m dedicated to starting some kind of business related to my niche, but I don’t care so much what it is. I’m just interviewing people and trying to close the gaps. I’m having fun nerding out with colleagues. As long as I don’t get carried away and stressed out about making my product work, I can enjoy the process.
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