Quoted from : Raad Mobrem, medium
(This is a continuation of my previous post, “How to Build a
Successful Business, Part #1”)
Why listen to me? My name is Raad Mobrem and I am a
successful tech entrepreneur. I raised $3m from investors for my last company
Lettuce and sold it to QuickBooks for $30m. I’ve advised and invested in many
companies, helping them grow to be multi-million dollar machines. I am now
working on my new company WeDo.
— — —
Part 2: Yes! I
found a problem that I can solve, but is it really worth solving?
James: Hey Raad! I have this idea and I think it’s going to
be huge!!
Raad: Oh yeah?
James: Yeah. It’s an app that allows me to watch a movie
with any of my friends from around the world. In addition, I can chat with them
while watching the movie, in real time.
Raad: Hmmm…
James: I recently moved to Seattle and can’t watch movies
with my old roommates anymore — it’s a big problem for me. I told my friends
about it and they all love the idea as well.
Raad: Is that a big problem though?
James: Yes! Of course it is! Everyone watches movies. It’s a
big problem.
James seems really determined and excited about his new
idea! However, he hasn’t even come close to validating this concept and I’ll
tell you why.
Issue #1: He is telling people about his idea and not asking
them about the problem. His excitement has clouded his judgement and prevented
him from asking good questions. Don’t do this!!!
By interrogating the idea a little further we can quickly
poke holes in his thinking and learn that it doesn’t really solve a big problem
for a lot of people:
How often do people talk with one another during a movie?
Not much. Thus this chat solution would be solving a non-existing problem.
How often would the average person coordinate with friends
to watch a movie? Not enough. My guess is that most people in the 13–24 age
group watch movies with friends randomly. And most people over 25 watch movies
with significant others that live with them, not friends.
Would you and your friends stay dedicated enough to
coordinate a watching session on a monthly basis? In my honest opinion, I doubt
it. We have so much going on in our lives…and as mentioned before, we usually
watch movies randomly.
Issue #2: The
entrepreneur asked his friends…when he should have asked a range of people that
do not know him.
James asked his friends and they all said something to the
extent of, “I love it. I would totally use that!” This happens all the time!
Friends support one another and encourage each other at the surface level. But
the act of asking friends about an idea usually fails to tell us if a lot of
other people have a similar problem.
We tend to get overly excited about our ideas, get lazy
about who we ask for feedback, and fail to properly validate the basics:
Is this a big problem that a lot of other people have?
This leads to building a product/company with a shitty
foundation that decreases your chances of success. Don’t be this person.
Here are some steps on how to validate a problem and
ultimately your product:
Step #1: Identify
a few different sets of people (also known as demographics) that might deal
with the same problem.
Our problem at WeDo: people have to get a lot of stuff done
everyday.
We brainstormed over a few days and initially decided that
college students, mothers, event planners, etc. probably felt the same pain in
a significant way.
Step #2: Talk to
these different sets of people. Ask them about the problem first, not the
idea — do this at least 500 times.
My team and I walked around UCLA for a few days and talked
to hundreds of students. We asked them if they found it hard to manage all the
things they needed to get done…their response — “sort of”. Some understood the
problem, but not that many. This was not very promising, but looking at the big
picture, this saved us a lot time and money in the future marketing events.
We then talked to mothers and asked the same question…their
overall response — a big “yes”! They were so excited about question that they
started sharing ideas on how to build a solution. We got the same response from
event planners, and many other types of potential customers. This was just the
kind of customer validation we were looking for!
Pro-tip: If the person you are talking to starts explaining
the problem in detail, you know it’s a big problem that needs to be solved.
Pro-tip: Pay close attention to the way the person describes
the problem. We learned that most mothers use the word “to-do” instead of
“task” and this helped us later on when doing some additional validation (see
step #5).
Step #3: Ask the
people you’re talking to on how they would solve the problem.
This does two things for you: (a) it inspires them to walk
you through their process or routine, and (b) you’ll get ideas for potential
features, straight from the customer!
Pro-tip: If the person starts suggesting ideas on how to fix
parts of the process without you needing to ask, you know it’s a big “BIG”
problem that needs to be solved.
Step #4: Share
your idea with them — but ask them to be brutally honest on why it sucks.
You’ve now gotten suggestions on how to fix the problem and
it’s somewhat consistent with your idea for a product. But you want to make
sure. At this point you should share your idea with them, but ask them to tell
you why it sucks! The main reason to do this is because you want set the
precedent that they don’t have to be positive but should instead find the gaps
or issues with your proposed solution.
The worst thing you can do is ask for their opinion with a
loaded question (i.e. Do you like my idea for a to-do list app?) because this
only guides them to give you words of encouragement — and this doesn’t help you
in building a better product at all.
Pro-tip: For a more advanced way to share your product idea
with potential users, build a quick prototype with a tool like Invision App.
Getting product feedback (in addition to everything mentioned above) is best.
Step #5: Find out
if people are searching for this kind of product or talking about this problem
online.
Now it’s time to figure out if there are enough people
talking about this problem online. There a few great ways to do this:
(1) Google Keyword Planner → Create an account →
Input keywords (ex: to do list, task manager, etc) into the section titled “Get
search volume data and trends.” → As a general rule, if
the search volume is in the hundred of thousands per month or more, then that’s
great news.
(2) Google Keyword Planner → Search for key words on
twitter → If you notice a bunch of mentions with hearts/retweets,
then it shows that this is a topic of interest and engagement.
(3) Find the forums that your targeted demographics might
visit and see if there are any related discussions.
Now that you’ve you learned some simple tips on validating
your problem/idea, go out and do it! It’s not very complicated and you’d be
surprised at the number of people willing to talk you!
The next step will be to define our customer (to be
continued)…
We will continue this in Part #3 (coming soon) of How to
build a successful company.
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