I launched a product that nobody wanted. Spent four months building it, three months marketing it, and exactly seven people bought it. That was the most valuable business lesson I ever learned.
The product was a “productivity system for solopreneurs.” It had all the features I wanted in a productivity system. The problem was, I built it based on what I wanted, not what the market wanted. I never talked to a single potential customer before writing a line of code.
Here’s what I did wrong: I assumed everyone thought like me. I assumed my pain points were universal. I assumed that because I needed this product, other solopreneurs needed it too. Those assumptions cost me a year of my life and about $15,000 in development costs.
The correct approach, which I now use for every product, is this:
First, talk to at least 20 people in your target market before building anything. Not friends, not family, but actual potential customers. Ask them about their problems, not about your solution. Ask what they currently do to solve the problem. Ask how much that currently costs them, in money or time or frustration.
Second, build the smallest possible version that solves one specific problem for one specific type of person. My product tried to be everything to everyone. It was nothing to nobody. If I had built just the calendar aspect, the scheduling piece, I might have found product-market fit.
Third, charge from day one. Even if it’s a pre-launch, even if it’s a waitlist, make people commit with money. Free users will tell you what they think you want to hear. Paying customers will tell you what actually matters.
Fourth, launch before you are ready. I waited until the product was “perfect.” The perfect was the enemy of the good. Get something out there, get real feedback, iterate. The MVP saved would have taught me more in a month than my perfect product taught me in a year.
That failed product taught me everything I know about validation. Now I never build anything without first proving the market wants it. The seven customers who bought my failed product? They became my first validation interviews. They told me exactly what they actually needed. I should have paid them for that information.
