Examples of successful products that didn't solve a desperate need?
I'm struggling to find the "hair on fire" group for my product (https://www.holfolio.com) as it's more of a nice to have than a need to have (track and share all of your investments in once place).
Am I doomed if I my product doesn't have a group absolutely desperate for it?
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3 examples which might fit your question:
Apple solves nothing with their products, but the weird need to think of belonging to an elite community which again is absurd since they sell millions of their overprieced crap.
Facebook solve no purpose either, but the human desire to expose oneself to the public sharing all your data in the process.
It´s just about the marketing and branding and how to sell that in the best possible manner. You can also analyse how Red Bull did it. Their product is also questionable if serves a need or not.
Totally, this reminds of one video explaining that you A) have to solve a problem, or B) You have to cover a need.
Facebook covers like the social need of humans and explots that.
Apple solves plenty with their products. Or is the smartphone, desktop, laptop not needed? Because some perceive them to be overpriced doesn't mean they're not solving problems. Can those problems be solved elsewhere for less? Sure. But still solving problems.
Facebook also solves problems. For it's customers it provides a platform to reach their own customers via ads.
For it's users it's solving the problem of needing to connect with other people. To form communities, make friends etc. If I want to keep in contact with someone in another country and share photos on a regular basis then it is a problem. Many ways to solve it and Facebook is one.
Red bull is solving the problem that people want caffeine based drinks. Plenty of alternatives to solve the problem but Red Bull uses their marketing to be top of mind in the market it wants to own.
As for Apple: There was no need for Apple to enter the market, there were already solutions out there. So, YES, they solve a problem, but their products are/were unnecessary from the very start.
Same goes for Facebook, absolutely pointless market entry since back then e. g. Myspace was king and provided all the services you mentioned already perfectly fine.
Well, if I want a caffeine based drink I could drink coffee. Here we can now argue over taste but that wouldn´t make sense.
All those brands are there were they are because of god-level marketing and branding. That´s why I think if you have a sub-par product but are top level sales person you can gain mad profits. On the other side, if you have a top level product but don´t know how to sell the business will never be profitable.
Whether they needed to enter the market or not is irrelevant. They all solve problems. They do it in different ways and offer different things to what was already on
the market (whether physical or intangible).
If businesses weren’t allowed to enter markets when a problem was considered to be solved, a) the world would be boring af and b) we’d have no innovation by providing better solutions to existing problems.
Keep your mind open to the possibility of solving old problems in new ways.
It might be interesting for you to look into the Jobs To Be Done framework, specifically a book called when Kale and Coffee Compete. It frames the needs and wants of people as an ultimate attempt to better themselves, to become a better version of what they are and using products as a way to accomplish that. You might be able to tap into something unexpected with that point of view. Maybe sharing your portfolio is a way to show off, but it might be a way to teach others, or inspire others or connect with like minded people or maybe promote a particular type of philosophy or a direction of philanthropy.
Ice cubes! They are solving nothing, all of us can just make ice cubes at home but we choose to pay the added value just for not having to make them ourselves.
It may not be exactly what you were looking for but I believe that having in mind that the users are willing to pay an added value just to accomplish something a bit easier helps a lot!
Best of luck!
Thanks. I think giving people a chance to show they are smart via their investment track record (I.e. they beat the market) without showing off how rich they are is the string I'm going to pull at right now. Signal your investing skills
Superhuman ?
No better example than Superhuman
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Hey.com
Hmmm. Some random incoherent thoughts:
One of my hobbies is dabbling in the markets and I kind of liked your site. It was interesting to see what people were buying. It would have been nice if I could read their reasons for buying. But there is a lot of competition out there. I just had a look at Seeking Alpha and they have a pretty good community feature. Also what looks like a decent portfolio tracker.
I can see how if you had a group of friends you could see what each other are buying and selling. Is there a need for that? Not sure. The pros already talk and the amateurs don't really have the time.
Thanks for checking it out. I keep thinking how investing today is like online dating before tinder - something everyone did, but we were all too awkward to openly discuss. I'm hoping by being able to hide behind a username it will make people more open about their finances than they would be in real life.
You could be right. The anonymity might be a draw. I think the biggest thing is to connect with potential users. Who are your potential users? What are their needs?
It’s certainly much harder if there’s no one out there that is desperate for your product. Have you identified a single person who really wants it? Alternatively, while talking to potential users have you learned about any other problems in the real estate investing space that you could tackle instead?
There's people who are using excel to track their investments (this is for equities, not real estate), and I offer a step up on that.
I guess thinking more generally, what was the "problem to be solved" for e.g. twitter? Who were the people absolutely desperate to share their status and were doing it in less efficient ways before?
I'd argue consumer apps, like Twitter, solve two "hair on fire" problems, the desire for human connection and the desire to be happy/entertained. Of course, there's a huge range from more entertainment (reddit) to friendship/connection (snapchat) to news/business (twitter). I think consumer apps are a pretty different beast from SaaS/utility and aren't a super helpful comparison.
Thanks, all very good points!
For me twitter acts a bit like RSS. Allows me to follow interesting writers and occasionally comment. Obviously it allows those writers to publicise their work and also to allow people to comment on it. Less work than allowing comments at the bottom of a blog.
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