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independence6 unconnected · 4 more authors in those circles
standing

contested · 11 claims against 4

applies to

b2b and consumer, no audience needed

mixed results

confidence

high

evidence

15 claims · 13 articles · 4 receipts

window

2012-10-03 → 2024-05-15

6 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

Get it into real hands, or shape it first

One side says put a rough version in front of users immediately, because months of private polishing produce no feedback and a verbal pitch cannot tell you whether the thing is any good. The other says the honeymoon of a new idea makes you stop asking who wants it, so do the shaping and the demand work before a line of code exists.

Where this splits

Ship something rough this week to learn from real use, or refuse to build at all until the idea has survived validation without code.

  1. side 01 · 11 claims

    Ship something rough now and learn from real use

    Andy Bowie · Cory Zue · Justin Jackson · Luca Restagno · Luke Thomas · Nathan Barry · Pieter Levels · Tyler Tringas · Zach Swinehart

    1. 1Let people use the thing early instead of developing privately, otherwise you finish something nobody asked for.
    2. 2Ship an early rough version to create a feedback loop, then refine the idea from what comes back rather than from planning.
    3. 3Before building the real startup, ship a rough web app over a weekend and put it in front of ten users.
    4. 4Put a minimum version into the market to check that the problem you think you are solving is the one people have, before building the rest.
    5. 5When everyone you describe your product to pictures something different, stop reasoning about it privately and get it into users' hands, even unpaid, to find out what people actually want.

  2. side 02 · 4 claims

    Validate the idea before you write any code

    Cory Zue · Enrique Benitez · Justin Jackson

    1. 1Do not spend half a year building before anyone has been asked whether they want it.
    2. 2Forbid yourself from building while an idea is new: let yourself research, discuss and validate it, because once you start coding you stop examining whether anyone wants it or how you would reach them.
    3. 3Spend a long time challenging an idea and standing up its marketing site before writing the product, so that when the build turns brutal you already know the demand is real.
    4. 4Treat the lean MVP route as expensive validation: you only learn the concept was wrong after building and shipping it, so do the shaping work before writing code.

What it returned

  • €4k

    Two years on a hidden product with zero paying customers, against €4k MRR from two later products that were validated first.

  • 45

    Phoenix took roughly six months of nonstop development and shipped to 45 signups and no revenue.

  • A development agency built the first My Auto Shop prototype quickly and it went live within about three months of the concept starting, on a learn as you go basis.

  • Zue found every person he discussed a SaaS template with had a different idea in mind, and made getting one person using it his single north star for the following month.

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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More in product

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the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

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