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100% disagree. Building something to scratch an itch is by far the easiest way to proceed initially. Many, many tools and services were built to scratch an itch

by pbreit 10y ago

100% disagree. Building something to scratch an itch is by far the easiest way to proceed initially. Many, many tools and services were built to scratch an itch.

vecter 10y ago
I can't tell you the number of times I've been pitched a bill splitting app. It's an itch, not a real problem. For all of the positive examples of companies that were "built to scratch an itch", there are thousands or tens of thousands of failures where the itch turned out to be a tiny market worth nothing, or no market at all.
- pbreit 10y ago
  OK, maybe "itch" isn't the right word. The more painful the itch, the better. I would agree that bill splitting apps are completely stupid. But I've never felt bill splitting was very itchy.
  - vecter 10y ago
    And therein lies the problem. "Itch" is too vague, subjective, and low of a bar for starting a real business around.
PeterisP 10y ago
The point is that "build a product to scratch your own itch" is a dangerous statement - you should be finding an itch that (a) a lot of people have and (b) that doesn't have an overabundance of scratching solutions. The itches of typical developers fail in both of these criteria; typical developers are a small niche of consumers and they can scratch their own itches, so there are many solutions and if it's still itching, then probably simple scratching won't help. You need to find itches in other domains. It might be your own itch if you have extensive background in some specific business domain and just happen to have development skills, but for most people you'll have to go out of your way to find and understand the itches that you couldn't possibly ever have - possibly because scratching them would be so easy for you that you wouldn't notice the problem if you had it, while they have been suffering for decades.
- pbreit 10y ago
  Certainly the best itch to scratch is one you think a lot of other people have as well. You definitely do not need to find itches in other domains.

by pbreit 10y ago

100% disagree. Building something to scratch an itch is by far the easiest way to proceed initially. Many, many tools and services were built to scratch an itch.

vecter 10y ago

I can't tell you the number of times I've been pitched a bill splitting app. It's an itch, not a real problem. For all of the positive examples of companies that were "built to scratch an itch", there are thousands or tens of thousands of failures where the itch turned out to be a tiny market worth nothing, or no market at all.

pbreit 10y ago
OK, maybe "itch" isn't the right word. The more painful the itch, the better. I would agree that bill splitting apps are completely stupid. But I've never felt bill splitting was very itchy.
- vecter 10y ago
  And therein lies the problem. "Itch" is too vague, subjective, and low of a bar for starting a real business around.

PeterisP 10y ago

The point is that "build a product to scratch your own itch" is a dangerous statement - you should be finding an itch that (a) a lot of people have and (b) that doesn't have an overabundance of scratching solutions. The itches of typical developers fail in both of these criteria; typical developers are a small niche of consumers and they can scratch their own itches, so there are many solutions and if it's still itching, then probably simple scratching won't help. You need to find itches in other domains. It might be your own itch if you have extensive background in some specific business domain and just happen to have development skills, but for most people you'll have to go out of your way to find and understand the itches that you couldn't possibly ever have - possibly because scratching them would be so easy for you that you wouldn't notice the problem if you had it, while they have been suffering for decades.

pbreit 10y ago
Certainly the best itch to scratch is one you think a lot of other people have as well. You definitely do not need to find itches in other domains.