So I skipped a few steps, big deal?
by Sean MoirBeing an engineer, what’s the first thing I did for Time Advisor (after buying a domain, of course)? I started building an MVP 😬
And that was wrong.
The problem – one of many I’m sure – I didn’t really talk to anyone else to understand if they’d use it. While I started this adventure to solve a personal need, what works for me may not work for others. So I’m doing some course correction and put together a landing page using mocker.app by @SamHayden to help validate the idea with others.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
-
4
Here is what happens when I land on your page.
First thing I read:
Time Advisor helps slow it down
What I think : Slow what down? What does that mean? I don't get it. I need to read the small sentance just before this one.
Then I read:
LIFE GOES BY QUICKLY
What I think : Yes life goes by quickly, but why would I want to slow it down? When life is slow, it's boring.
Then I read:
A time management assistant to help you be more intentional with your free time
What I think : Ok, like a calendar? More intentional? What does "be more intentional" even mean? Talk about the product already, what does it do?
Then I scroll and read:
Managing our time is overwhelming
What I think : What?! No. Managing life is complicated. But time? I never think to myself : OMG, I'm trying to manage my time, I'm so overwhelmed. It's about the things I do with my time, not time itself.
At this point I'm tired of reading. The ratio between interesting information versus time reading is not good enough, I close the page. I still have no idea what the product does or how it looks.
Sorry if this sounds harsh. I hope my feeback is helpfull. Good luck for your project and have a nice day! :)
-
1
This is incredibly helpful, thank you! I much prefer honest feedback over sugar coating. I’ll have another iteration done later today that incorporates a lot of this feedback.
-
-
4
When reading quickly your landing page I don't understand what you will do to help me.
-
3
I have issues with managing multiple tasks and prioritizing tasks. Sometimes I lost track and backlog tasks never come up. Sometimes using a time management tool for small tasks seems an overkill. for 2 min task, I need to configure my time management app for 5 min. I haven't found a proper solution that fits my personal needs. Right now I am going full manual, pen and paper. Easier to note, go back and revise and prioritize.
-
2
^ this - I'm the exact same but I use my iPad and Apple Pencil.
-
-
2
You mention you skipped a few steps (oof!) and now it seems you're going directly to landing page design, which is again skipping steps.
Have you talked to potential customers—your target audience—before even this step?
I've found it's immensely helpful to find five or so people and just chat with them about what their problems are like in the relevant space. Done well, this can give you the exact insights you need to focus your project and especially a landing page.
(If you haven't yet, check out the book The Mom Test.)
-
1
I think you are right that I am still skipping steps. My goal was not to create a real landing page, just a temporary one to test whether I can articulate the idea and get feedback on it. Turns out 1) I’m not very good at articulating it and 2) it’s not the same as actually talking to potential customers as described in The Mom Test (I read a quick summary and will def get the full book – thanks for the recommendation!).
-
-
2
Here is my 2 cents.
I usually ignore these since there are so many in the market and so many startups with tons of money.
If it was me, as a indie hacker, I would never try to take on billion dollar companies head on. You have to attack from the 10% they don't want to touch since it is not enough profitable for them.
Here is an idea for you. Some kind of wrapper over Monday and Jira etc... that does something better but still play with them since the rest of the company does. Something with no install.
Then "Land and Expand". Push it to employees and before they have time to react you are in and they have to buy the Enterprise plan.
Good luck! -
2
Hi looks cool, I would add some mockups / screenshots of the idea 😁
-
1
Thanks, screenshots coming soon!
-
-
2
Definitely a product idea that has potential for customers. I urge you to checkout reclaim.ai.
Their product automates time management (calendar blocking) depending on your daily activities and goals-
1
There’s definitely some overlap, I’ll give it a try – thanks!
-
-
2
The default Google calendar has this feature where you simply select things like "Learning to play guitar", "Doing exercises", etc, and Google calendar automatically add these activities to your calendar in your free time. So you'll compete with Google.
Also, as others have mentioned, your landing page is very confusing. Are you actually able to slow time? You lost me there.
-
1
No, but it should feel like life is slowing down. At least it does to me when I pay close attention to my time.
I've used a lot of apps, but somehow I missed the memo with Google calendar goals. This is very close to what I'm going for with the free time recommendations in Time Advisor, so that's a bit demoralizing. My vision for the app still has several differentiating features/workflows, but it's difficult to convey without showing.
I really appreciate the feedback, these are good challenges for me to keep iterating on. Thanks for taking the time!
-
2
Of course you can't chose how to feel, but it's part of the process. Just smile and keep going.
You might have to iterate, pivot, or maybe niche down. There might be some kind of people that needs it for X reason, I don't know.
But don't try to reinvent the wheel. If you don't know any big company making money from this it's because maybe there is no market for it.
Don't worry. If you can't find any niche for this idea, I'm sure you'll find plenty more ideas.
-
1
If you don't know any big company making money from this it's because maybe there is no market for it.
Todoist has over 10M ARR as far as I know. Google calendar goals also seems like decent market validation to me – just because it's free doesn't mean they're not making money from it.
Just smile and keep going.
That's the plan!
-
-
-
-
2
How is it better then a dozen of others?
-
2
A lot of apps focus on being more productive. Time Advisor focuses on balancing that productivity with living in the moment (e.g. spending time with family, getting outdoors, reading, whatever you enjoy doing, etc.).
-
2
What I'm missing personally is the how. Maybe screenshots might help, but I'm not really inclined to try the product just yet because I don't really know what it does and how exactly it works.
-
1
Understood, thanks! I’ll have another iteration done later today that refines the message and focuses more on how.
-
2
Awesome, looking forward to that!
-
1
Landing page V2 is here 😁 https://timeadvisor.app
I put a little more effort into this one using Framer. My Figma (and design skills generally) are very lacking, but Framer made it easy to build some basic visuals.
-
-
-
-
-
-
2
Mockup looks good, my only concern with such time-tracking tools is that personally I find that I spend more time tracking/planning than actually doing the work. Maybe you could describe how easy/hard it would be to use the app and how much time it would take/save.
-
1
That’s really helpful, thanks! Time tracking is important and difficult to get right.
Some things I can automate – calendar, workouts, etc.
Some things I can infer/learn – sleep, meals, etc.
And the rest I’m building ways to provide quick feedback for – when completing things and during the end of day recap to fill in unknowns.
I’ll try to sum this up and add it to the page.
-
-
1
Thanks again for the feedback, everyone! Landing page V2 is finally here:
https://timeadvisor.appAlong with a new Landing Page Feedback post.
-
2
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.
-
1
I went through startup school a while back and made the mistake anyway 😅
It’s just so much easier to get started building something, but it likely won’t be the right thing.
-
1
I don't know. I did this myself and just built the thing instead of doing all this landing page nonsense. It might be different if you are trying to introduce something very unique to the market. I worked on an already established idea which had lots of alternative products.
-
-