How do you build a product for an a subject / audience you don't know anything about?
Hello Makers!
I have an idea for a product related to the educational field. In a nutshell think Udemy for live classes. These days I am trying to do a lot more research instead of jumping right to coding anything but I don't know where to start...
Where do you find your future potential users?
How do you introduce yourself to them?
I know you are supposed to listen to your users and understand their pain points but for a product where user's will mostly generate content, how do you validate your idea?
For some reason every industry that I try to build for are unknown to me.. the ideas just come in but because of this lack of knowledge and connection in those industries it seems that I can't get users.
How do you guys manage that?
Some great posts here, and they've all pretty much nailed it. Recognise it'll be really difficult, but if you're really passionate about it, speak to far, far more people than you think is necessary.
Re those customer conversations, if you haven't already I'd really recommend reading through The Mom Test - http://manuelohan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/The-Mom-Test-en.pdf
(And as a cheeky addition, we've built a product to help kick-start B2B customer development, if it would help - https://inqu.is/)
Find a partner who has experience and connections in this industry, it will make you life x100 times easier.
Niche down to an audience to target first. One that you can understand and connect with. One that you think would be most open to using your potential product.
By doing this you can start to make a picture of who they are, find out where they hang out, start talking to them and figure out what their problems are. If all goes well then there's probably no reason why you can't expand to other niches later on, should you want to.
Thank you Rosie!
My advice from personal experience: don’t.
If it’s an industry you haven’t been involved in, don’t have an intimate/experienced knowledge in, and don’t have an audience for, just don’t build it. I wasted a lot of money learning that lesson after already having built a million-dollar product.
But if you must build it because you’re 100% sure there’s a market for it, the only viable option is to find a partner who does have intimate experience, knowledge, and connections for the industry you’re building for.
I broadly agree. It's hard enough building something in a field you know, let alone one you don't. There's a hundred pitfalls that you just won't know about unless you've been through the industry yourself.
That being said, I personally know a team who managed to do so (non-technical founders who built an aged/disability care app with zero prior knowledge of the field). They didn't have any secret sauce, just dogged persistence and a willingness to go back to square one when their first few attempts failed.
Of course, they probably would have gotten there quicker if they were more familiar with the field to begin with.
So I don't think you're guaranteed to fail by going into a field you're not familiar with. However, you'd definitely maximize your chance of succeeding by getting familiar. So if I was going into education, the first thing I'd do - before writing a single line of code/business plan/copy/whatever - is go sit in on some classes. Don't even ask questions or talk to people. Just listen, watch, observe. Don't assume you know what's important and what's not. Take notes about EVERYTHING, even the dumbest, most obvious things you see. Pay attention.
Once you've done that, then you can start talking to people.
Oh, and before you do that, read the Mom Test. The single greatest book on product design/development I've ever read.
This is my opinion too. I hate to be negative, but I think not having industry knowledge is a huge disadvantage. I would never do this unless I was willing to invest 1-2 years getting up to speed. jmho
Plan to invest significantly more time in user research than you would for a domain you know. TALK to users, not just passive data collection or market research. To move fast while doing this look for early patterns and if they seem interesting to you, figure out how to find more users like them to strengthen the signal. Then follow @rosiesherry's advice on going niche.
Try (cold) contacting few existing Udemy course instructors to see how they react to your idea. If you build this, the 1st set of instructors most likely are the ones who are already teaching something somewhere (Udemy)! So starting with may be a good first step.