[rpicard]

From what I've read in blogs and The Lean Startup talking to the people you expect to use your product is the way to go. If you're selling an application for teachers aren't the teachers the people who will know if they'd use it (to an extent)?

[caw]

Absolutely. The first thing you want to do is ask someone in the domain about the problem. Is it really a problem or is this a solution without a problem? At that point you can start figuring out how you're going to solve this problem, and doing your design and iteration.

If you end up with an idea first (because you always find ideas in the shower and very rarely problems), try to take a step back and figure out what the problem is that your idea is going to solve. From there you can do your iteration.

[jimisir]

really great feedback thanks. I'm just thinking of a quick way to get that idea to a diverse group of teachers ( for example ) and get feedback in real time as opposed to just the ones I know who are likely to just say "yeah we'd use it" so they can make me happy.

I was thinking of creating a service where you can blast out an idea. If enough people signup and maybe categorize themselves, you can possibly get valuable feedback on whatever idea you just had. What do you think?

[caw]

>I know who are likely to just say "yeah we'd use it" so they can make me happy.

I believe in this casey you're supposed to show 3 products that could potentially solve the problem. Pick 3 axes that you think could be important. For giggles this one is going to be fast, cheap, or good (quality).

Draw the 3 axes and put each solution on it. You want a spread, so don't jumble all the solutions together. Are they together? Go back and change one of your axes such that they break apart (you don't necessarily need to change the ideas).

So now that you have your fast/cheap/good axis set or your makes toast/slices bread/gets you a drink automatically axis (to illustrate the point that this could be anything and applied to any set of solutions), and your ideas are sufficiently spread out, go show the people all 3 ideas. Tell them all 3 ideas then ask for feedback on any of them. You'll have 3 categories of feedback: love it, hate it, neutral. You want 1 or 2 because that means you've elicited a response which you can use to further your iteration. By giving them 3 solutions they can now evaluate your [great idea] in context with other things that can also solve their problem. They'll generally give you better feedback than "I'd use it" because they'll tell you "I wish #1 could be more like #3 in this way."

[jimisir]

thanks for the responses. highly informative. i'll definietly take this into consideration

[rpicard]

In theory it sounds nice but in practice people may be hesitant to make their idea public to X number of strangers whom they've never met. You'd also need to find a wide range of domain experts to participate. What is their motivation?

[jimisir]

You raise a great point and honestly my two hypothesis are 1) People would realize that its very valuable to get the opinions of strangers before "wasting" time creating something they think they might want. One could argue that talk is cheap but I'm sure this guidance can lead to very valuable results maybe rethinking the idea or whatever the case.

2) You don't need domain experts in the beginning per se, just a bunch of minds who can quickly determine if they would use or not use a service. The motivation behind domain experts joining in the future might be just to help and give back to the entrepreneurial community (I admit this last point is kinda corny lol)

[mapster]

LinkedIn could be used to facilitate this feedback loop.

[jimisir]

hey! I'm curious as to how linkedin can be used...care to explain a little bit :)

[caw]

My guess is that you'd find a connection that works your particular area to validate the problem. If it's a first level connection that's great, easier to ask :). Otherwise, find a second level connection and get introduced to them. Say that you'd like to discuss some of the problems that they may experience [as a teacher, entrepreneur, etc]. People love to talk about their problems to someone who will listen.