Value Prop (the search for the holy grail)
In your opinion, what is the hardest part about crafting your value prop?
Most indie hackers love the language of coding, but don't love playing with the language their audience uses. But getting the right words in place is so crucial to get that early traction.
What are some big challenges you've faced as a founder when trying to clarify+simplify your messaging for normal people?
I am so incredibly lucky that my brother in law works as a copywriter, and a very successful one at that, because I've been learning just how bad my posts are. Not bad. Maybe that's too harsh. But I've started passing him some pages and they come back with loads of really great notes. Notes that I should perhaps have been able to spot myself.
My disconnect, I believe, is that I just don't feel comfortable marketing. I don't like to act all "you need to buy my thing", and that leaves a lot of what I write to come across as bland, boring, and uninteresting. I think that it may be a very British thing, as we aren't really the type to toot our own horn.
Another thing that I struggle with constantly is that I use very technical terms that most people cannot parse. Relevant XKCD (there's always one). I'm getting better, I think, because I use my girlfriend as a filter and if she glazes over then I know it's rewrite time.