Not sure this is exactly what you're looking for (non-dev here) but I had a chance to interview Michel Feaster (HP/acquired Opsware/mentored by Ben Horowitz/fou

Not sure this is exactly what you're looking for (non-dev here) but I had a chance to interview Michel Feaster (HP/acquired Opsware/mentored by Ben Horowitz/founded Usermind) and picked her brain on how to create something. The conversation centered around how to create a category but I think the process applies to side projects as well. Copy/paste from Google doc didn't work well on mobile so here's a link to the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F0ex-c-vmitYQiDnSSODUZCWHtFBTk0Vm6QS6Y2X8FU/edit?usp=drivesdk https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F0ex-c-vmitYQiDnSSODUZCW... Michel’s playbook Look for 3 big shifts in the buyer’s world Conduct day in the life interviews Asking When you walk in in the morning, what is the first thing you do every day? How many applications do you log into? What applications do you love and why? If there was a problem I could solve for you, what would it be and why? Who do you report to What are you MBOs Looking for What did they do all day What did they love What did they perceive as pain What were they promoted for if they did well What are their challenges in their interactions with their boss Make sure you understand Technology landscape Daily work life Responsibilities / mission Look for patterns in the data Common pains / problems Value attached to solving it Find a gap you can solve What’s the value to the user? What’s the impact on the organization? What’s the ROI of the impact? Value of solving? Market Start with a bottoms up TAM How much do I think they’ll pay me for this? Shoot for 10% of the value, eventually. If I achieve 20% share of the market, is it a $1 billion company? Then do a top down TAM If I could redirect 1% of category spending, what would that be? $100b TAM = great for B2B, $1t for B2C? Product Break down what you’re going to build Is it defensible enough from the way our competitors are currently doing things? Is there mental space for a new Kleenex? Whiteboard the solution Identify 3 core capabilities you must build See what’s out there for each of these How difficult is it to build each? How defensible is it? Time horizon Is anyone out there doing anything close to this? Positioning / differentiated narrative Can you define the narrative? How difficult is it to copy? How different is the platform? Can you get your competitors to sell on your narrative? Ex. No Software, Inbound Marketing, Conversational Marketing Value Early days you’ll only get 1% of the value you create As you grow, you’ll have more leverage and will be able to slowly bring that up to 10%