[chris_hawk]

I agree with all of this, those 3 elements are critical. However, the issue I keep coming back to is "how do I figure these 3 things out before I launch a product?"

Nathan at ConvertKit has built an incredible business, and he's earned every bit of it the hard way. However, not everyone is going to have the financial or emotional stamina required to launch a product first, watch it struggle, and figure out the positioning later. For a lot of us, if we don't get the target market at least ballpark-right the first time, we aren't going to be able to see a product through the process of trying this positioning and that positioning until we find something that works.

So, how can we improve our chances of getting "purchasing power", "purchasing desire", and "market mass" right up-front, before we invest time and energy in creating a product? Are there any particular exercises or processes you recommend that will help us find and/or evaluate different markets?

[mijustin]

There's a few strategies I recommend in the book (Marketing for Developers) for this:

1. Start with people like you – Mike from Freshbooks was a designer. So when he started his company, he focused on designers.

2. Choose a market that is easy to reach – you can test this out by writing blog posts for different markets, and see how easy it is to get traction. Another tactic: try buying Facebook ads for different segments. Which segments do you get the most engagement for? How cheap were those clicks?

3. Start small – starting with a tiny product allows you test our a market, before you invest too much time in it.