3 ms·

This reminds me of 2 pieces of advice I received from 2 early mentors, both 3 words, and diametrically opposed. 1. "Scratch an itch." 2. "Find a customer." #

by edw519 16y ago

This reminds me of 2 pieces of advice I received from 2 early mentors, both 3 words, and diametrically opposed. 1. "Scratch an itch." 2. "Find a customer." #1 comes naturally to a hacker. I'm always building things for myself. Then I think, "If I need it, someone else probably does, too." #2 does not come naturally at all. I have to work at it. Frankly, I'd rather build stuff than talk to people (although that has changed quite a bit over the years). FWIW, I have found very little success with #1 (one big exception: a program generator I wrote for myself was very well received by others). #2 has worked beautifully. Every time I have ever found and satisfied a first customer, the second, third, fourth, etc. were much easier to find and satisfy because they needed the same thing. What great advice. I wish I had listened much earlier.

runevault 16y ago
I wonder if the effectiveness of #1s is based on the person's interests and what itches they are scratching. Since for many devs their first inclination is to scratch their development itches... however in a fair few cases you are putting yourself in a market where your own audience might be able to do as well/outdo you, making things tougher. When you're writing tools for less technical groups, and taking the effort to make them highly usable by those who are less technically savvy the odds of running into similar problems are lower.
gcheong 16y ago
How do you do #2? Do you have a solution in mind and then look for customers or is it a matter of asking people what their problems are or a bit of both? Do you do cold calls?
- edw519 16y ago
  How do I find customers? I just talk to people. All the time. I allow my inquisitive nature to take over. But most importantly, I really care. A mentor of mine once told me that lots of people need what we provide, so it's our responsibility to find them and see what we can do to help. If I'm in someone's business (even as a retail customer), I often ask to watch as they enter data into their customer facing system. This invariably leads to some discussion and who knows what else. I attend events and network regularly, even if it's just staying in touch with acquaintances and asking what others are up to. Email works really well for this. I don't have a solution in mind because I want to listen to the other's problems first. If something I have written (generally small business or e-commerce) sounds close to what can help them, I may go down that path. Anything else, I pass, but gladly provide a referral to someone who can help, if I know of any. I don't cold call in the pure sense. That's just not my nature. If I ever got good at that, then I wouldn't need to be a programmer, I'd just sell someone else's product. I found an old semi-related post of mine that may also be helpful: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182400 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182400
- kristiandupont 16y ago
  Steven Blank and Eric Ries talk about a "customer development process" - you might want to look that up. I am going through it myself these days and it feels like they are talking directly to me.

by edw519 16y ago

runevault 16y ago

I wonder if the effectiveness of #1s is based on the person's interests and what itches they are scratching. Since for many devs their first inclination is to scratch their development itches... however in a fair few cases you are putting yourself in a market where your own audience might be able to do as well/outdo you, making things tougher. When you're writing tools for less technical groups, and taking the effort to make them highly usable by those who are less technically savvy the odds of running into similar problems are lower.

gcheong 16y ago

How do you do #2? Do you have a solution in mind and then look for customers or is it a matter of asking people what their problems are or a bit of both? Do you do cold calls?

edw519 16y ago
How do I find customers? I just talk to people. All the time. I allow my inquisitive nature to take over. But most importantly, I really care. A mentor of mine once told me that lots of people need what we provide, so it's our responsibility to find them and see what we can do to help. If I'm in someone's business (even as a retail customer), I often ask to watch as they enter data into their customer facing system. This invariably leads to some discussion and who knows what else. I attend events and network regularly, even if it's just staying in touch with acquaintances and asking what others are up to. Email works really well for this. I don't have a solution in mind because I want to listen to the other's problems first. If something I have written (generally small business or e-commerce) sounds close to what can help them, I may go down that path. Anything else, I pass, but gladly provide a referral to someone who can help, if I know of any. I don't cold call in the pure sense. That's just not my nature. If I ever got good at that, then I wouldn't need to be a programmer, I'd just sell someone else's product. I found an old semi-related post of mine that may also be helpful: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182400 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182400
kristiandupont 16y ago
Steven Blank and Eric Ries talk about a "customer development process" - you might want to look that up. I am going through it myself these days and it feels like they are talking directly to me.