a single source, nothing corroborates it
Show peers the tool you built for yourself
Internal software written to answer your own questions is the cheapest product test available. Show the output to people doing similar work and watch whether they ask for it: several companies asking for the same thing is the signal that the tool is a business.
The method
- 01
Show peers the output of the internal tool you built for yourself. Their reaction tells you whether it is a product.
What it returned
Amplitude started as internal analytics for Sonalight, a voice-to-text app, after Flurry, Google Analytics, Adobe and Kissmetrics all failed to answer the team's questions. Other Y Combinator companies asked for the same insight into their own businesses.
Sources
- How the most successful B2B startups came up with their original ideaSpenser Skates · lennysnewsletter.com · Path 3: Present pull · 2023-08-08
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.
More in word of mouth
- Check word of mouth exists before you build8 unconnected · contested
- Turn buyers into fans instead of buying ads6 unconnected
- Show up in person where your readers are5 unconnected
- Make the second user arrive with the first5 unconnected
- Answer support as if it were the sales channel4 unconnected
- Give the hardest customers your hours4 unconnected