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Customers’ willingness to pay signals how much they value a product or feature. I'd change that very slightly. It's not their willingness to pay, but their col

Customers’ willingness to pay signals how much they value a product or feature. I'd change that very slightly. It's not their willingness to pay, but their cold, hard cash that signals how much they value the product. Many, many people will say they're willing to pay for a product before you build it, and they really are, but won't actually pay for it when it comes time to sign up because they either no longer have the need, or the product isn't actually a good fit, or they can't afford it, etc. You can't really believe any signal except the money going into your bank.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
unfortunately you only have the willingness to pay before the product or feature is delivered.
- onion2k 5y ago
  That's not true at all. You can charge customers before you build anything - it's just the 'pre-order model'. Lots of businesses do that, including some high-profile startups. Check out the sites like Seedrs and Kickstarter for examples.
  - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
    that's true, I guess in that case you do know that people really, really want it. Seems most suited to something obsessive, like games. I tend to discount it as I have never paid for something on spec.
deleted 5y ago
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tpetry 5y ago
The book „The Mom Test“ describes the behaviour very good. Most often these people are not totally honest in evaluating your idea because multiple reasons e.g. you asking the wrong way (happened to me too!) or they are not really thinking about it buying it but only about commenting your idea. Should be read by everyone!
- mehphp 5y ago
  The Mom Test is such a great (and quick) read!
marcosdumay 5y ago
"Willingness to pay" is a very specific term on economics and it doesn't mean "oh, sure I'd like that, I'll call you". It means exactly that those people will pay, with nobody forcing them, if you offer the product without further constraints. It's also an abstract value that can only be measured once the item is sold.
cercatrova 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willingness_to_pay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willingness_to_pay Willingness to pay is an economics term which means basically what you stated in your comment.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago

unfortunately you only have the willingness to pay before the product or feature is delivered.

onion2k 5y ago
That's not true at all. You can charge customers before you build anything - it's just the 'pre-order model'. Lots of businesses do that, including some high-profile startups. Check out the sites like Seedrs and Kickstarter for examples.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  that's true, I guess in that case you do know that people really, really want it. Seems most suited to something obsessive, like games. I tend to discount it as I have never paid for something on spec.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

tpetry 5y ago

The book „The Mom Test“ describes the behaviour very good. Most often these people are not totally honest in evaluating your idea because multiple reasons e.g. you asking the wrong way (happened to me too!) or they are not really thinking about it buying it but only about commenting your idea. Should be read by everyone!

mehphp 5y ago
The Mom Test is such a great (and quick) read!

marcosdumay 5y ago

"Willingness to pay" is a very specific term on economics and it doesn't mean "oh, sure I'd like that, I'll call you". It means exactly that those people will pay, with nobody forcing them, if you offer the product without further constraints. It's also an abstract value that can only be measured once the item is sold.

cercatrova 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willingness_to_pay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willingness_to_pay Willingness to pay is an economics term which means basically what you stated in your comment.