Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by maximp 1955 days ago
It's a little bit more intricate than that. The point is to figure out what the customer needs. The Mom Test (book) covers this pretty well.

This page just kind of pokes at things everyone's frustrated about without offering a solution. But, as The Mom Test points out, there are lots of things people are kind of unhappy with, but are unwilling to pay for. I think the example they use are shoelaces: "Are you tired of bending down to tie your shoes? Having to stop in the middle of the street to re-tie them? Feeling your shoelaces wear out over time? Getting stuff stuck in there?"

Maybe, but are you actually gonna pay for a shoelace alternative? Probably not.

This page is that. It makes some sweeping statements about how work should be intentional and peaceful, and says "we're gonna solve it with a calendar", without offering any details about what that calendar is actually going to do.

If they had some screenshots, they could learn something about how their users engaged with the product. Saying vaguely positive-sounding things ("Rise is different than your current calendar, because instead of starting with meeting invites from others, it starts with you.") doesn't teach them anything.

1 comments

That shoelace example is interesting because people do actually buy non-shoelace shoes, such as slipons, or the new Nike that have that folding hinge in the middle. But generally yes, I agree that one should focus on what is a real problem that people would pay lots of money for.