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independence2 unconnected · 1 more author in those circles
applies to

b2b, no audience needed

mixed results

confidence

high

evidence

11 claims · 11 articles · 4 receipts

window

2023-04-21 → 2023-12-31

2 builders who never spoke to each other

Debug the market before you blame the product

When growth will not come, check the category first, then the channels, then the product, because how badly the market already wants the thing dominates how fast anything grows. Selling that still feels like a grind after positioning and channels are fixed is a demand problem, and early revenue from your own audience's goodwill can hide it.

The method

  1. 01

    When traction won't come, debug in this order - market category, then channels, then product - because the category is what the other two are built on.

  2. 02

    Stop reading weak traction as a verdict on your effort; how much people already want the category dominates how fast a product grows.

  3. 03

    If selling still feels like a grind after you have fixed positioning and found channels, the problem is demand: with the right product you are managing existing demand rather than manufacturing it.

  4. 04

    Re-assess pain intensity periodically, since better technology, new competitors and shifting customer habits can downgrade a morphine problem into an aspirin one.

  5. 05

    Scratching your own itch is not enough when the category is already a commodity and the buyer solves the problem with a tool they own.

What it returned

  • 1997

    Derek Sivers spent twelve years pushing his own projects uphill against closed doors before CD Baby in 1997, which was the first thing he made that people actually wanted.

  • 2021

    Tyler Tringas, June 2021, on founders with a personal brand reaching a few $k MRR on people wanting to see them succeed.

  • Peter Suhm spent years pushing Branch, a WordPress product, then built Reform in a few months and it passed Branch in revenue quickly.

  • A mobile push notification product went nowhere because teams already send themselves alerts through Slack.

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 positioning

all positioning plays

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

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.