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Made a layout of my MVP after 26 interviews.

Last week I’ve completed 26th problem discovery interview. The top 3 obstacles founders face on the way to long-term goals are fear of failure, not being able to see progress, and lack of discipline.

This weekend I crafted a layout of the web app. Here are the top 3 functions:

  1. Tracking problems you tackled to see toughening of your skin.
  2. Checking what worked/didn’t work for founders in your case.
  3. Getting over the fear of failure by flipping the mindset

Now my plan is to chat with 40 people and clarify which features to add.
Drop your motivational/mental obstacles in the comments so I solve them in next updates.

  1. 2

    I would highly recommend energy level as a metric. I mean by that personal energy level.

    1. 1

      Good point! In my previous versions I pushed users to submit their emotional state weekly. Now I feel it should be done at the time they wish. How would you track the energy level? My idea is that the more experiments you do -> the more momentum you get -> the higher energy capacity you reach

  2. 2

    Great idea. I would be happy to beta test when it's ready.

    For me, it's gotta be fear of working on the wrong thing and concern of not focusing much on marketing (not my strongest area).

    I think the obvious answer to this is validating my idea to make sense of all of the features I should be building. It doesn't help my MVP has been stuck in limbo with Google Web Store (but that's another story)

    I would be happy to hear your progress as you're building this. Also, ping me if you have any additional questions (happy to provide feedback on your product)

    1. 1

      Thanks for your comment man! I'll be sharing all insights in my Twitter account :)

      1. 1

        looking forward to it

  3. 2

    I find it's easy to spend time on irrelevant stuff, if you don't have social pressure to deliver stuff. I love your idea, let's learn from each other's mistakes.

  4. 1

    For me, it's a combination of two: lack of discipline when you don't see immediate progress.

    I love how you do interviews first, before sketching out an MVP. That's always simply said. But not many are doing it actually.

    Good luck with your project, Denis. 💪

    Dennis (with two n) 👋

    1. 2

      Yeah it took me a while to get to interviewing people properly. I started the project half a year ago and tried to validate ideas via chat or forms. Of course after I delivered the solution noone needed it :) Months later I got tired of working on product which doesnt solve anyone's need. Read Mom Test and spent month looking for founders.
      Reddit appeared to be a great source! (thanks to ability to quickly send messages without leaving the thread). Conversions to talks were 15%+.

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        for sure! kudos on interviewing first. I must say, I should take that advice and get started. idk why it seems so hard.

        I would love to read more about your approach on Reddit. Sounds like you've been having great success there

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          thanks for your questions! There's so much to share that I'll make another post on that, give me a couple of hours

          1. 1

            awesome! sounds great

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        What kind of things did you post on Reddit to validate your ideas? Open-ended questions, then DM people with interesting perspectives?

        If only IH had quick direct messages too 😞

        1. 1

          +1 for this question.

          Also, curious about a few things.

          How long are these threads of interview questions?
          Is there a sweet spot for how many questions to follow up in a chat interview?
          Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on what you find to be the most engaging questions or parts of the conversation while in a DM

          Did you have any video interviews?

          1. 1

            Half a year ago I validated my startup idea in a chat without making calls. I wasted 4 months making products noone needs.

            All the interviews I conducted were over zoom. I did so because when somebody tells you "oh I hate this stupid thing, it's such a headache" - it turns out he may not feel anything! On paper it looks like a true validation, in reality the person may not even change tone saying this. That's why you want to do video interviews with camera. Only this way you'll see what he does and doesn't care about.

            Doing zoom calls I had 15 cases when smb said "yeah I hate X, I hope it never occurs". I followed up with "have you looked for a solution?" and the person got stunned.

    2. 1

      thanks man! I agree, many people mentioned that not being able to see progress led them off track few times. That's why I want to provide metrics on your inputs, so you see how much you went through.

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