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If you don't have EASY access to your potential customers, stop building for them.
by
Daniel Sage
Do I really need to expand on this?
What do you consider easy access?
What I mean by easy access is direct access to any random sample of your target audience.
Not only that, they must be willing to talk to you.
I've had to work with many founders with "Great ideas" and all that...
Who's target audience are not easy to reach and are unwillingly to chat... Even for a fee.
If you can't reach them, how would you improve your product and know what makes them tick? Imagine how hard it will be when you want them to give you their money.
Hmm I know these "Absolute advice" kinda posts are trendy. But advice rarely needs to be so absolute. There are a hundred ways to build a business.
For example we launched without direct access to our target audience, certainly never spoke to them prior to building, and now have a product doing nearly $2mm in ARR.
I believe that if you're in an established market, or if you understand the market yourself, you can get beyond an MVP without doing these things. In our case, there were reviews of established products everywhere and the detail/insights we could glean from Capterra reviews allowed us to shape our initial product.
Now, of course, I'm not saying don't speak to customers. Once your product is built and users, of course that's beneficial.
But there are hundreds of ways that everyone can access their target audience without direct access via email or telephone. I'd hate to put off someone building because they don't yet have that privilege.
I also hate absolute Advice.
Yes, rarely should advice be absolute.
What I shared here were drawn from personal experiences, and yes, in accordance to what you said: It wasn't a crowded/established market where the map has been laid out like in your case.
Mind you, Exception to the rule doesn't invalidate the rule.
And no, I'm not saying you are an exception, our cases are just a few sample sizes...
And it doesn't determine success or not. Demand does.
Like you also said, Mining reviews and conversations going online is a great way to get this data. It's synonymous to having easy access.
Because having access is not the goal, rather, it's understanding the consumer use cases and requirements.
Far be it from me to put someone off (my word choice betrayed me), I believe access makes it easier.
Thanks for the clarification, Evans.
Nice question, although I think it depends on the type of business and founder personality very much
It depends on this also...