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by onion2k 1626 days ago
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.
4 comments
marcosdumay 1625 days 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.

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tpetry 1626 days 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!
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mehphp 1626 days ago
The Mom Test is such a great (and quick) read!
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cercatrova 1625 days ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willingness_to_pay

Willingness to pay is an economics term which means basically what you stated in your comment.

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bryanrasmussen 1626 days ago
unfortunately you only have the willingness to pay before the product or feature is delivered.
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onion2k 1626 days 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.
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bryanrasmussen 1626 days 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.

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