How do you find product market fit for an add-on in a B2B marketplace?
Hi everyone!
I think we can all agree that validating an idea first before building is a strategy to prevent building something no one wants. An issue I've been hitting is B2B integration/addon marketplaces usually require a full solution before getting approved.
Here are some strategies I've come across (basically all copy-cat strategies):
- Make a copy-cat business and directly compete (i.e. more features, better price, better UX). The business is already proven to some extent so you may be able to capture some users and iterate from there.
- Data-mine reviews of other add-ons and make a competitor using negative & positive reviews of competitors. This is kinda risky on smaller marketplaces as apps probably don't have enough reviews to confirm a common problem.
- Cold-outreach sites that use the tool you're building an addon for. This is kinda difficult to a) get this list b) get folks to talk to you about issues they're having that an addon would solve.
So - what do you guys do to figure out a viable add-on/integration to build for a marketplace before actually coding? Or is this kind of thing a build it and pray they come as their marketplace directory is likely your #1 marketing channel?
Trending on Indie Hackers
If it can be built in less than 2 weeks, you can go ahead and build it and see to market. But if if takes more than 2 weeks, I would highly recommend you to start with a landing page and talk to signed up users.
Coming back to your question, "Cold-outreach sites that use the tool you're building an addon for" is the best if you could do that. Also look for the groups that talk about this B2B product/marketplace may be on Stackoverflow, Produchunt etc. Also see if you can try some ads (but limit to less than $100)
Thank you for the advice! Is the 2 weeks a personal threshold you suggest or is that something common people recommend? I've always heard validate before building (but I'm guilty as I've already built something before properly validating, I just did a copy-cat play to see what happens as the idea should be validated).
Do you have any tips on discovering these communities where people discuss B2B tools? I feel like most really wouldn't join a dedicated community for something like Intercom as an example, but I could be ignorant.
Do you have any resources on hand that you recommend for creating successful ads? I've seen in the past there's a few strategies around checking keyword volume but I'm not really sure if there'd be much volume given most searching is likely done on the integrations/addon directory for a given marketplace.
To get product market fit - the best is run fast-paced iterative process of build, launch, and get feedback.
Rinse and repeat.
Thanks for the reply. It sounds like your approach is more aligned with others in terms of building an MVP first and quickly iterating based on any initial customers that hopefully discover your addon.
Yeah alternatively you can do step 3 first. Once you've validated the idea then you can move on to build the MVP.
In that case just like Ads money, you should also have a budget to build simple stuff to see if there is traction. Just deal that time expent like you would deal money expent to see if your Facebook Ads are performing or need some twinkle
That's a good point, kinda related to what @upenv was getting at with their 2 week threshold. What is the time budget you give to test ideas by building before validating?
Around 1 to 2 weeks as well. But I got some boilerplates to do minimum work on new stuff.