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This opened me to somany new ideas!

As a developer whenever I had an idea my first instinct was to find out how to build it. But after reading The Lean Startup and watching YC’s channel I came to the conclusion that it’s not about how to build something, but about what to build!

Not having to worry about how to make something instead only having to worry about finding problems and needs that customers care about enough to pay for changed my way of thinking completely!

I now can have a simple landingpage claiming to have created a product (that I cannot ever create myself, but with funding can be created) for the sole purpose of getting pre-orders/signups to then get funding. In other words almost anything is possible, you just have to get customers!

I cannot explain how much easier everything just became for me, so I decided to share it here. A little trap for my fellow devs to watch out for!

What do you think, am I right?

PS I am available for free to help you get that Product Market fit! Check out this post!

  1. 2

    I've heard of this approach before, and it makes a lot of sense to me. If you cannot get someone excited about a product to pre-order it, it probably doesn't solve a big enough problem.

    One thing I wonder about is how do you approach finding a group of people that might be interested in the product and you don't have an audience yet?

    1. 2

      Excellent question! I’ve done this one time through Instagram described in this post. Back then I unfortunately didn’t realise this yet, so I got an audience, but never asked what problems they have. Instead I worked on an app for months with features no one wanted:(

      But now I realise that if I can solve a big problem for one person from this group it will solve it for all members, so I am not even sure if you need an audience to begin with.

      I can use the Viral Growth engine really well after I made one person happy, by simply giving that person (or those few persons) an. affiliate link and since it solves a problem for him he will hopefully share it with his colleagues which also have that problem.

      You can also start posting in reddit/Facebook groups etc if you found a problem and solved it for just one member of that group, because you then have social proof too.

      So focus on solving a problem for one person and then go from there I think is the best way.

      1. 1

        So I would say, got an idea? Make a social media account, and follow your future customers!

        I thought this part of your linked post was an interesting take. It reminds me a bit of a landing page for a product that doesn't exist yet. It feels like it might be a step before putting the work into building a landing page.

        I couldn't find it in your profile, but do you have a Twitter account? So I can give you credit if I tweet this out? :)

        1. 2

          I want to say tho that it works best if you can easily identify your customers on insta.

          With the things I learned now I would more focus on getting just a few customers (followers) very actively engage with them and make the product with them.

          Once the MVP is successfully made and tested with those few customers I would start following more people and posting daily to grow it. It will be much easier then, because you got an MVP and a bit social proof from those early customers.

          1. 1

            I want to say tho that it works best if you can easily identify your customers on insta.

            That makes sense. The clearer you can narrow them down the better. It is probably also important where your users hang out. It might be Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or somewhere else entirely.

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              Yeah definitely! If you are interested this is my new take on getting customers and building products. Basically focus on making one customer of a group happy.

          1. 1

            Nice! Just followed you.

  2. 2

    it's like working backwards - find a group of people with something in common, find their problem, find out if its a big problem, find out about it, design a solution, ask if they think it will be solved with your idea, and would they pay for it, build the solution, make it a company, market to the group, iterate and tune, profit.

  3. 1

    Glad you found this! It should really be part of the IndieHackers 101, such crucial advice :)

  4. 1

    Very well said. Although this is important regardless of the need for funding or a team.

  5. 1

    That's why I've created Olwi to find real problems people talk about.

    1. 1

      Thanks for sharing

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