Is it hard to focus?
For first-time founders, it may be hard to narrow down product ideas to one. Equally hard to narrow down features and choices. And harder still to narrow to one or two specific market segments.
Because focusing generates insecurity. It is hard to say "no" to features and market segments. There is also some wishful thinking: "maybe if I take a shotgun approach, something is bound to stick."
This happens primarily because some first-time founders do not understand the enormous product development and sales and support effort required to generate first 100 sales.
But more importantly, these founders need to discover the empowerment that comes from focusing - that sense of confidence that you understand the market and its needs, that you have a clearer product dev plan, that you can be happy when you make a focused set of customers happy.
Am I off mark? Would love to hear from founders who have gone through this journey!
I’ve gone through this a lot since I started my indie hacking journey. It’s hard indeed. And it came out of the fear of failure. Who wants to be failed, don't we?
But it's impossible to figure out all the right things on the first try. You’ll spend forever sitting on the bench, watching people play the ball. And when you want to play, you realize that everything has changed.
What's helpful for me is realizing that actions cultivate information, not vice versa. So we should be comfortable acting on a specific thing without complete information. That's the way to get more information after all.
Very well said @wilbertliu!
Act. Fail. Forgive yourself. Act again. By failing and then getting back up again, you will become a better founder.
I am in that kind of spot. I developed an algorithm that feels useful, but no idea at all which audience I can deliver the most value to.
I am always getting back to the idea that I should design the solution to be as generic as possible, and then quickly narrow down the use-case as I see the first feedback.
I feel I will have to waste a lot of time anyway.
(1) how do you know algorithm is useful? Is it useful to you?
(2) Is the algorithm itself valuable to customer (i.e. will it have a user interface)? Or would it be better if it were part of someone else's product?
(3) Generic products can be launched, but you have to be clear that everyone will value it - i.e. it should be part of some basic process people/companies follow.
Toothpaste is a simple generic product, a laptop is a complex yet "generic" product in the sense that everyone can use it for their own needs.
(4) Launching products to everyone can be costly and you need to figure out how to do that launch at low cost.
I can say from personal experience that if we are trained in technical fields, we have a tendency to enjoy making new features much more than making money.
Also, you don't have to waste your time going from generic to specific product. Change your approach - put the keyboard away and talk to your market first. If you are not comfortable with that, find someone who can help you with that.
Sometimes, we don't talk to customers for the fear that they will not like what we want to make. If that is the case, better to find that out before launching the product. Get the feedback on a Figma design first, heck even on a paper and pencil design.
Please continue this convo here. Let this community help you move forward!
@saurin, Thank you very much for a detailed reply. I think you are right.
I absolutely suffer from the effects you described. And I enjoy the process more than the end result. I am goat after all, I cannot be helped. :-)
Jokes aside, I am software engineer, that's part of who I am and what I truly enjoy to do, and I want to make this product well engineering wise. That's my number one priority. I enjoy the time doing craft well. Not perfect, not at all, but without any stupid gaps.
You helped me to sit and do some introspection and I think doing the craft well is more important to be the most effective building MRR. I think my preference is changing, but very very slowly.
Thank You. 👋
I noticed I changed the topic from "focus" to "coding vs everything else".
I think this only underlines your title here @saurin: "Is it hard to focus?".
:-)
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I found my target market/niche was focused enough but my scope was waaaaay too big at the start. I am building an app to help the gymnastics community manage and score gymnastics events.
At the start it was "all judging sports" (e.g. gymnastics, diving, surfing, figure skating, cheerleading, parkour etc.)
Then "Gymnastics"
Now it's "Men's & Women's Artistic Gymnastics"
It's not to say my future road map will not contain more types of gymnastics - but I was really concerned about how small the niche was - so I thought I needed to make my target market bigger, so that if my market share wasn't big - I could still make money.
There are still times where I am building my MVP now and I think "Geez, my scope is still too big!"
Assuming you are working on a web or native app..
Questions to ask yourself:
(1) do I really understand this "Men's & Women's Artistic Gymnastics" market and their needs? (2) do I know which of their problems give them most pain, or hold them back from succeeding at what they do? (3) do I have some sense of how I will explain my value proposition to them so they get it immediately?
If the answers are yes, I'd say just go for this niche market / early adopters first. Give them a product they would love, even if it does not have everything they want. Make them your friends, be honest with them, learn from them. Don't expect much money, but do treasure every dollar they give you - because that validates your work.
Once you have some initial traction with these people, THEN go and figure out how you will scale and make real money. Yes, you need to go into markets that are sufficiently large. But worrying about money even before your product is launched is counterproductive.
If the product - customer fit is right, money will flow in your direction, probably just not right away.
Thanks for the feedback Saurin. Yes, I know this market very well (and the good thing is - know how to find them all :) )
You're right - need to stop worrying about money - thanks
Wish you the best! Build a product that your customers can't refuse!!