Can strong implementation compensate for a weak idea?
Hello,
I'm a student. There's not much I know about the market. I have a decent experience in tech though.
These days, I'm working on building a blogging platform for non-tech users.
I'm nearly halfway through with the MVP, but I'm wondering now if what I'm building is too naive. It's because it sounds too simple in words when I tell it to someone.
I have heard from someone that a product implemented in a powerful way makes it stronger than how it sounds as an idea.
Still, it makes me wonder if the project is worth continuing.
I'd be glad to hear your thoughts, and any other perspectives on the same.
No. A spiffy, shiny product will get signups and lots of interest, and then you'll be trying to figure out why you don't have product / market fit, and what's gone wrong, eventually understanding that your problem / solution are either not as strong as you hoped, or do not match your current audience.
BUT! Once you have users you can learn. And you can create a positive feedback loop around better understanding and then better solving your customer problems.
There's a lot of blogging platforms out there. It's a saturated market for a free product.
Figure out what your unique insight is about blogging, or pivot out of that product idea into something your customers need more urgently.
Every idea is a weak idea, until it delivers its promise of solving a problem for which the customer uses the product for.
This such a great debate to have, idea vs execution. If your idea isn't good enough, execution can't help you in the long term. If you don't focus on execution then even the best ideas can't save you.
A company's success is determined by (a) idea (b) team (c) time (d) execution (e) funds
Unlikely you will score 10/10 in all the areas. But you can't afford to score zero in any of these. @roshnet
Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts and your experiences. It's great to see a discussion from so many different standpoints, and it certainly helps in making better decisions.
Here's my take on the topic - unless the idea is something that makes the listener feel "oh-wow", a mediocre implementation is probably going to turn out fine.
However, if there are products already implementing the idea in the market, we need a different "product" out of the same idea, one that's simply better than the ones existing already.
Ideas are worthless. Implementation is what matters.
Now, can you make anything valuable if you implement it well enough? Well, for something to be valuable it has to, as the name says, provide value to others. So there is not such a thing as "weak or strong" idea, all that matters is that people using your product can get value by using it. The more value they get out of it, the more likely your startup will be to succeed. The value comes from both the "idea" (problem that you are solving) and the implementation (how is it actually solving that problem, how easy it is to use, how much time/money does it save the user?).
I disagree with this for the most part.
Both the idea/problem and the implementation is important. But I would say that in the bootstrapper/indie hacker world the idea is even more important.
You only have so many resources as an indie hacker. You need to choose a problem that you are able to solve with those resources. You also need to choose a market that makes sense for a bootstrapper. You don't want to choose something that could get eaten up my big companies or startups. Remember, you're only one person.
This shrinks the amount of ideas that an indie hacker can go out and achieve successfully.
Also, startup/online business ecosystem is more crowded than ever. Your idea has to stand out and be something that is actually needed. Implementation probably won't cut it.
I don't know a ton about the blogging space. But my knee-jerk reaction would be that it is pretty crowded. There are pretty simple blogging platforms out there. There could be some way that you could differentiate it though. you never know. That reminds me , differentiation is key! Another thing that comes back to the idea.
How would you stop big companies from stealing your idea? You don't.
The way you can compete with big companies (if this is what you want) is to create something in such way that is not feasible for them to replicate, or not profitable at their scale. Another option is through expertise and the ability to always iterate faster than they can, which is again linked to implementation more than the idea.
I did say the problem you are solving is important, but just having an "idea" for an application doesn't really help. Ideas that usually come up are just solutions looking for problems to solve. I guess the definition of idea is ambiguous, as once you start defining the problem you are trying to solve and the way you are solving it, you are already diving in and defining the implementation.
Well I agree with that!