I think #1 is the key to the whole thing. I love how Pat Flynn talked about building a market map in his recent book Will It Fly. I think this method is very

I think #1 is the key to the whole thing. I love how Pat Flynn talked about building a market map in his recent book Will It Fly. I think this method is very helpful in finding out if what your doing is something people want. Derek Sivers of CDBaby has this same mindset. He has always worked off the pull method rather than the push method for what he creates. Ash Maurya in his book running lean gives you a nice script for customer development interviews. I have tried this with a previous startup idea, and they saved me from going down the road of working on something people did not want. They are probably a bit more involved than Pat's method, but it is something else to consider.