Finding Out If Anyone Wants It
The cheapest way to learn an idea is wrong is to ask the people it is for before building anything. Asking well means not leading them to the answer you want.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Write three questions that could get a no, rather than three that fish for a yes
- Explain why what people say they would buy is weaker evidence than what they have already bought
- Say what result would make you drop the idea
1 · Read
An idea feels great in your head, but heads are biased. The cheapest way to learn an idea is wrong is to ask the people it is for before building anything. Name your target group precisely, then go and watch real people.
Visit shops, count customers, and ask what annoys them about current options. Ask what they like and dislike, how the product could improve, and where they would buy instead. Write down exactly what they say, not what you hoped to hear.
Ask questions that could get a no. Fishing for yes answers teaches nothing, and what people say they would buy is weaker than what they have already bought. Watching beats asking, because people describe themselves as tidier than they are.
Test small: offer a sample, a signup sheet, or a tiny paid trial. If strangers will not even try it for free, that is an answer too. Decide in advance what result would make you drop the idea, and keep that promise.
Ask plain questions that allow no, watch what people do, and drop ideas that fail a small test.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.