Should I kill my idea before it's even launched?
After weeks of back and forth on ideas, and a few conversations with potential users I decided an idea I had was worth pursuing.
So far I've been working on how to position it and the landing page, to see if what I have to offer sparks interests.
However, it has dawned on me that the reality is, I have no idea how I'm going to get people to come to my site.
I've only ever launched one other startup, and it was a no brainer. SAAS metrics for Braintree, when no-one else was doing it. So it really was "build it and they will come" because people where googling for that product. All our traffic was organic.
But what I have now... It's an itch and I think it could help a lot of people BUT I don't think those people are actively googling for it. So, how do I find them?
FYI the product is essentially:
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Timeseries Charts, As A Service.
Automatic, time aware visualisations in minutes. No code, no complicated configuration, no SQL required.
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Since I don't know how to find them, is that a big warning sign that it's the wrong thing to pursue?
Sounds like a solution in search of a problem. You know exactly how your solution is going to work, what it looks like, and what the features and benefits are... but you don't know what problem it's solving for people, or who these people even are. It's an attempt to build the best tool for a job before you even know what the job is.
You have two choices: (1) Stick with the current idea and just try to find the right customers. (2) Scrap at least the specific idiosyncratic details of your idea, then go back to square one, begin with a problem and analyze it to make sure it's one worth solving, and then start talking to customers to confirm or disconfirm your hypotheses.
I don't recommend option number one. Some indie hackers make that work, but most don't.
Option number two sounds tedious and slow, but it's actually not. You can analyze the basics of an idea in minutes or hours, then start looking around at other products and talking to people to test some of your hypotheses in the next few hours.
It's much faster to iterate on analysis, research, and conversation than it is to iterate on your product. Writing code is slow. Ideally by the time you're doing that, you're pretty certain you're on the right track.
hey @csallen, thanks so much for this man, appreciate it!
Yes my fear was the dreaded "solution in search of a problem".
It's funny ins't it. Ideas. You hear about this "solution in search of a problem" a lot, but, no one I think just comes up with a solution without a problem, right?
I think what maybe what happens is, and probably what happensed to me was, there is a core problem that gives birth to the idea. Then we get excited about the idea, make it bigger than it should be, and we forget the original core problem we were trying to fix? Do you think? If I think back to why I wanted to build this, it did originate from a simple problem, that perhaps I thought could apply to too many things!
In regards to what you said, I'm definitely not coding/building anything yet. You're right, I DO have a through idea of what the product is, including idiosyncrasies, BUT it's just in my head. What I'm trying to do with the landing page is test whether I can get anyone to "get" the problem, and or show interest in the solution (possibly by signing up to the "beta" program (which is really just a email list)).
Perhaps the problem with this idea (which maybe is why I need to scrap it) IS that it's about the details and/or requires too much explanation. Maybe it's just a plain old bad idea?
I like your number two option. But I still find the popular advice of "analysing the basics of an idea" and talking to potential customers too abstract. Where are they? I think maybe the issue is, apart from IndieHackers I don't "hang out" online. I don't do twitter, reddit, fb, forums etc etc. I look for tools simply by googling a problem and seeing if a solution exists 🤔
Perhaps I have two options:
Think back to the origin of the idea. If I think about it, it's a solution for a problem I had. So, I guess it's a solution for developers, since I'm a developer and I had the problem during development. I think it might be useful for others, but perhaps I need to focus on developers. And then I need to talk to developers and see if they run into the problem I',m trying to fix? I guess I could start in the developers group on IH?
Option 2, I think this is what you're getting at: I forget the solution altogether, go back to the problem, speak to a wider variety of people and see if the problem exists? 🤔
Funnily enough, I did speak to a handful of people about what they use for data analytics... I tried out ALL the products they use, and ALL of them had problems I'm trying to fix. But, when talking to them... none of them saw any of the tools they currently used as problems.
I don't know.. I think the fact that there's so much discussion around this idea is perhaps that it's just not a good one. It's a shame, because I know it would help me.... but maybe I'm super niche? 🤔
Thanks again for the reply @csallen 🙂
I woild recommed going to BI forums, data viz forums, r/dataisbeautiful and such.
Maybe form a deal / plugin with timscsle db
Figure out who uses timeserises db's like financial planners and analysts at boutique shops.
hey @Naveen, thanks for this, super useful advice 🙂
When you say go to those forums.. go there and do what? Talk to them about whether they have a problem, or straight up link to the landing page of my solution to see if it resonates?
In terms of timescale.. that's a VERY interesting idea. In terms of forming a deal, when you say that, off the top of you head.. what "kind" of deal do you tare you imagining?
In terms of figuring out who uses timescale db like a financial planner.. that interesting. So you mean, find who uses timescale, and then see if a super easy plug in would be useful to them?
So in a way, niche it to timescaledb analytics? 🤔
Yeah for the forums, just talk to people and see where the issues are that people have.
Humans are supremely dissatisfied, so pick an issue they would pay for and tailor your solution.
Also for niche-ing your tool for timescale db, that was just one option, there was recently some news about automation for a ggplot plugin. But don't get beholden to their platform
Yeah timeserises db's are very interesting for any sort of geology people also.
So target audience could be geo archeo paleo people, stock markrt analysts, crypto analysts
Stats people and data viz people.
Who is the target customer -> find the reddit and fb group there in -> provide value
I think that's the issue. I don't know 🤔 who is the target group for any visualisation tool? I think someone else hit the nail on the head which is, perhaps the value prop is too broad
how did you build the product without knowing who the customer is? There must be a person, maybe it was you who could use the product. Creating timeseries seems niche to data science?
Spend some time finding who the customer is before continue any further. Once you do you will have all answer you'll need.
Well.. I haven't built it yet 🙂.. I know what it is in my head but I want to validate it first.
But yes, you're right. I guess I was following the "scratch your itch" approach. I was a developer who was tired of creating graphs and queries over and over again for looking at data "over time"... it was always the same, the same filters, UI, queries etc etc... I thought, if this existed "as a service" I'd pay for it... but I found nothing thus the idea... 🤔
So perhaps that's the answer.. "developers who want to create graphs in their app" is my customer?
I would think about either a) targeting 1 or 2 specific problems that this could solve for a specific vertical (think about crossing verticals later) or b) target product companies to license it to use in their product.
IMO the premise has merit. Chasing after every niche that could want it sounds like too little eggs in too many baskets to me.
@lee_in_perth I have been mulling over option (a) for a while... I'm glad you bought it up.
I think out of your two options, this probably seems the most doable. It's hard isn't it, to narrow down the functionality of a tool when you know it can do more... but perhaps that's the only way to get started.
So, question. When you say, target 1 or 2 specific problems, do you mean:
thanks so much, much appreciated! 🙇♀️
I'm back from my little hiatus... busily working for the man really sucked the joy out of using the Internet in my own time for a while!
I was thinking somewhere between your options 1 and 2: One landing page per vertical (healthcare, government, hospitality etc.). And identify the scenario(s) of those verticals that your platform could address.
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Hi @Monk85, thanks so much for the encouraging words! 🙂
Hmm, yes perhaps the next step is uncomfortable. I think though, more than uncomfortable I find it very "ambiguous". Like it's not totally clear to me what "finding where they are" and "talking to them" means. I mean, I can talk here, on IH, because I'm not trying to sell anyone anything... know what I mean?
But yes, you make a good point. I have spoken to a few people, and I've checked out all the products they use... I have google a few variations of the description and the one that sticks to me (and also seems relatively popular on google trends) is "Charts as a service". I also found a handful of people looking to solve the problem on some forums.. but... it's like nonne knows it's a problem.
I know it's a problem for me.. but it's like noone can see it's a problem? And you know, perhaps it just isn't 🤷♀️
In terms of your question.. I'm having a hard time positioning... "time aware visualistations" means, instead of you having to feed the tool some data, and the create all the time filters yourself, you just feed it a table, and if it has a date column, it automatically generates the charts with the usual filters (plus the queries behind the filters) like, he date range, and whether you'd like to group you result by minutes, day, month, year etc. All the tools I've used, it doesn't treat the "time" element as a first class citizen. This is.. "hey, have data that happens over time? I get that, all data over time charts look they same, think about you google analtycis visitor graphs, vs your spending charts in your banking app... it's the same, I want to see how much of thing has happened over time, and then filters/drill in with various time related toggles... so here's all that to you with almost zero config"
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hey @Monk85 thanks so much for this man... makes a lot of sense. I really appreciate it. It's tough one but I get you. I gotta say... I think I find it easier to focus on developers (since I'm a dev and I came up with this idea when having an issue) but it's a shame since I think it would be a great no-code tool! Maybe that can come later... 🙂
thanks again 🙇♂️
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