2 builders who never spoke to each other

Make prospects answer yes or no, not maybe

Asking whether an idea sounds interesting collects politeness, so the question is framed to force a decision: would you use this and pay for it. A rough prototype or a round of interviews gives people something concrete enough to refuse, which is the answer you actually need.

The method

1. 01

   Email prospects and force a binary answer - would you actually use this and pay for it - rather than asking whether the idea sounds interesting.

2. 02

   Cold email your target segment for interviews before the product exists. Radig lined up interviews with marketing agencies while he was still assembling a no code prototype.

3. 03

   Use a fast prototype as a demand experiment: be your own first customer, demo it publicly, funnel the organic interest into a waiting list, and hand it to a few trusted people before committing to a production build.

What it returned

• 17

  Rob Walling emailed 17 founders about the Drip concept with exactly that framing.

• 2018

  Justin's written goals for Spots.fm, an idea he had shelved since 2018, after building the first Rails version in a weekend from wireframes and a requirements document.

Sources

• The value of software in a Fable worldJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · The value of software in a Fable world · undated
• It's not enough to build a product that people wantJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Will people use it and pay for it? · undated
• Johannes Radig — Traveling the World and Raising Prices – The Bootstrapped FounderJohannes Radig · thebootstrappedfounder.com · 2024-03-27