How did you narrow down your ideal customer?
My business is in the beginning stages of launching a new initiative and I've found the Mom Test so relevant. Right now, one of my issues is what feels like an impossible amount of variation in my customer demographic. Before reading the Mom Test, I felt like I had a pretty specific idea of who my ideal customer was. Now I'm realizing that I wasn't being specific enough. And this broadness made my customer conversations so much less valuable. Because as @robfitz with 20 different kinds of customers. That's why the feedback felt impossibly inconsistent.
Have you ever had this issue before? How did you narrow down who your ideal customer was?
Also don't forget to add your questions to the AMA here:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/im-rob-fitzpatrick-i-wrote-the-mom-test-book-went-through-yc-s07-learned-how-to-do-sales-as-a-techie-and-live-off-full-passive-income-ama-4989966b85
I recommend that you also read "Positioning", it's going to be game changer for you as well.
Since you have a new business you have to try your hypothesis and see what works, I wish there was an easy way out and while there might be some hacks to help you tests what might work or not, you still have to test. For example, you might sell shoes, but safety shoes for engineers in alaska is a whole lot more specific, that's what you're looking for.
hi @kho thanks so much for chiming in. I'll definitely look into your suggestion! :)
What's your product and who do you think you should target? I have two different products and have had vastly different experiences.
With WrestlingIQ, I'm targeting wrestling coaches and admins. Even within that narrow niche, I have to segment out club/youth teams, middle school, high school, and college because their top pains vary wildly. But three very specific segments does wonders for my focus.
With Postcard Panda I'm targeting 'people who send postcards and care about it being eco-friendly'. That is way too broad and I haven't solved the problem.
Btw I think Nathan Barry's approach from ConvertKit was a great read. ConvertKit basically only jumped niches once they'd saturated one, then jumped to sibling ones to make kick starting the next one easier: https://nathanbarry.com/sales/