Attended the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge this summer. They push teams to do experiments to determine if their guess/business idea is solving a real need of a customer segment. This 8 week program has saved a lot of companies from building the wrong product and addressing the wrong problem. Watch some of the videos on BuiltinChicago.org to hear how the interview process lead to a major pivot and the start of a company. Summary: Don't built it unless you have done considerable customer interviews and determined A. you are addressing a morphine problem not an aspirin problem and B. The customer base will pay for your solution. Then you build and A/B test. :)
This. I think the biggest problem startups make is finding a problem and building a solution, but not realizing there is a difference in problem size, value and pain per your medicine analogy.
Comments
Attended the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge this summer. They push teams to do experiments to determine if their guess/business idea is solving a real need of a customer segment. This 8 week program has saved a lot of companies from building the wrong product and addressing the wrong problem. Watch some of the videos on BuiltinChicago.org to hear how the interview process lead to a major pivot and the start of a company. Summary: Don't built it unless you have done considerable customer interviews and determined A. you are addressing a morphine problem not an aspirin problem and B. The customer base will pay for your solution. Then you build and A/B test. :)
This. I think the biggest problem startups make is finding a problem and building a solution, but not realizing there is a difference in problem size, value and pain per your medicine analogy.