[Fergi]

(Jeff from PipelineDB / author here)

Thanks for the honest feedback. You are definitely correct that there are many successful projects and businesses that did not start with a clear sense that people would use or buy their products. But there are a disproportionately large number of projects and businesses that have failed, precisely because they did not have a clear sense that people wanted what they were making and would pay for it.

Also, this post isn't saying that builders shouldn't begin with a strong, fundamental conviction about how things should be dramatically different. I, as the author, would actually argue the exact opposite. The point I'm making is that once we have our convictions, we should test and measure the extent to which those convictions are correct before investing large amounts of time, money, and energy into productizing them.

Lastly, the point about asking questions and then listening to customer feedback would only result in building minimally better products if the product hypothesis we start with is itself unimaginative. But that hypothesis can be literally anything. Customer feedback simply teaches us if market demand lines up with our assumptions about market demand.

[_zbkl]

A "Hobby" project turning into a business is a rarity. It comes down to expectations of returns.

If you want a business, a monetize-able product, you have to think about sales. The observation that majority of Software start-ups fail to avoid the mistake #1 from this article is accurate. And majority of Software start-ups start with an expectation of monitory returns.

If the expectation is a personal sense of fulfillment, anything other than a business for that matter, then what you are creating becomes more of an art than a product. There is a chance you might earn from it, but it is slim.

[dandare]

I agree with tinyvm and I agree with your replies, it all should be part of the wisdom.

I have the honor of making all three mistakes you mention and my project didn't end up well :).