How to overcome fears and cultivate a "stop building, talk to customers instead" habit? What are good validation signals early on?
Hello indiehackers community! This is my first post here.
After years working for a FAANG, I've recently left to try bootstrap an indie business. I'm dealing with a few challenges right now, which i would love to get your feedback on:
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I've been working on app development fairly consistently but until now have elicited the feedback of customers (& the general public) far too little & unsystematic - even though I'm aware it is very important to not build a product that nobody needs. What's holding me back strikes me as a mix of fears (is it ready & good enough?) and habits (app-dev comes natural, biz-dev less so. Building in public requires guts). QUESTION: Do you know of any practical tips/techniques/tools how to overcome such "talk to customers" hurdles and get in a "regularly communicate with public" mindset/habit?
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As i have a family to support, I've have very limited time/resources to build an initial "proof of concept" and collect signals, to know if the biz is worth while pursing further. I'm finding it difficult though to decide "what are signals that matter?", especially in this early stage where there are no (paying) customers and achieving buy-in from VC's etc. is not a goal. I've done some market research/testing but find the resulting signals to be ambiguous. A Waitlist/Presales would be a excellent signal, but slightly out of reach for now. I have to decide soon if i am "all in", or if its too risky and the "side-project + full-time" job route is better. QUESTION: What are signals and "north stars" you found useful to decide if its worth while the risk to pursue an indie business very early on? What signals gave you the courage to carry on?
Hi Samim!
Congrats on pursuing this idea - most people don't even follow through with the execution bit. I strongly believe that one of the game-changers in user feedback is the book "The Mom Test". I highly recommend it if you are struggling to have authentic conversations or drive customer interviews.
In terms of finding the communities, there are tons of Slack channels you can get into to find early adopters (you'll be surprised how many people are willing to try your product).
Hope this helps!
In my view, counting on outside signals (to assess early potential traction) is like reading from tea leaves.
For me, it is all about EXPERIMENTING.
It can be a wild experiment, let's build something and throw it on the wall (launch in a marketplace) and see if it sticks. There is a crazy beauty in it.
Or you invest huge amounts of time and energy to understand the inner workings of your targeted niche so you can move more methodically.
Do you have any customers yet?
Make it automatic to ask for feedback so you don't have to think about it
1 month post onboarding > auto email "like the product? Leave me a review. Don't like it? Let's chat! (Calendar link).
But make sure you also reach out to everyone that did leave a review! Getting an interview right after someone reviewed your product is the best way to get the positive feedback. Which you can use for testimonials and messaging on your website.
You can automate the second part too. Have an auto email reminder to yourself for everyone that clicked the link to leave a review in the first auto email.
Some thoughts:
1.1 Ask for discounts on everything you buy, all the time, it’s really uncomfortable to do but once you hear no a few (hundred) times 😂 you get less sensitive about it and it’s easier to have conversations that would have once seemed difficult.
HTH
🍻
I love that idea about asking for discounts everywhere! Basically is a guaranteed “no” that gets you out of your comfort zone. I will have to give it a try.
Doing it now (again). Started answering lots of questions in facebook groups. One day, a guy did not get any good answer. I contacted that guy to understand what he wants and figure out what he needs. Did a lot of competitor analysis and found out another gap in the market which seems more lucrative. Reset. Started calling friends and got a lot of no. :face palm: at this point. Changed a bit the pitch, and started calling companies and a different personas. After the pitch showed some quick wireframes with wymsical with the potential customer own data. Just got 2 yes in a row. OMG! Next step, make a demo and get back to them to lock down the required outcome. If everything goes well, will start actually implementing it. Quickest as I can. MVP basically.
I think you have to get something out there. You learn so much just from the feedback from a landing page or similar. You need opportunities to begin iterating the ideas as soon as possible and that comes from feedback from your audience.
Do you have good access to your audience? do you know how to reach them?
If so, I would create a quick 1 page landing page and point them to it. Ask people (directly) for feedback and collect names on a waitlist.